Syrian Negotiation Committee met with US Envoy for Syria
ISTANBUL, Turkey (North Press) – Anas al-Abdah, the president of the Syrian negotiation committee, has recently revealed the details of the online meeting with the new US Special Representative for Syria Engagement, Aimee Cutrona.
The meeting focused on the need to put pressure on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to engage seriously in the political process and the upcoming presidential elections in Syria.
“I made it clear during my meeting with Cutrona, that a mechanism should be put in place for the implementation of the UN Resolution 2254 and driving the work of the Constitutional Committee according to the requests contained in our letter to the Security Council,” al-Abdah said in a statement on Friday.
He also stressed the need to “achieve rapid progress regarding the issue of the detainees that the regime evades by all means.”
“During the meeting, in which Hadi al-Bahra, co-chair of the Constitutional Committee participated, I stressed the importance of the transitional governing agenda, and the need to activate it,” al-Abdah added.
He called for “tightening the sanctions that target the figures and supporters of the regime, in order to put more pressure on it, in addition to the importance of having a clear international position regarding the fake and illegal elections that the regime is preparing to hold in its areas of its control.”
“The communication is more introductory than practical, meaning that it too early to talk about anything before the new US administration reveals its approach to deal with the Syrian crisis,” a source from the Syrian opposition, who preferred not to be named, told North Press.
He pointed out that the Syrian crisis is subjected to “study and reassessment by the American administration.”
The meeting comes in the context of the US State Department’s endeavor, “to hold the Syrian crisis away from the influence of the Pentagon and the CIA, whose approach is different, the matter cause the failure of the US administrations to solve the issue,” according to the source.
He pointed out that the issue of the political process and the constitutional committee “remains trapped.”
The source commented on the failure of the fifth round of the Constitutional Committee, saying “This indicates the conflict between Russia, Iran and the UN, which shows the weakness of the latter and threatens to collapse its process.”
Based on that threat, the UN sent its special envoy to Astana “in an attempt to link it with Geneva and save its course,” according to him.
On February 10, the Syrian negotiation committee sent a letter to the presidency of the UN Security Council to distribute it to the 15 members of the council before its closed session on Syria.
The letter stressed that the regime is the main and the only obstruction to the political process, asking the Security Council to push for the implementation of the Resolution 2254 with all its entitlements.
Attention is drawn towards the Syrian capital, Damascus, amidst a state of cautious anticipation in the Syrian opposition, for what will happen in the event that the elections are held with the participation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad again.
In a statement, a few days ago, al-Bahra said, “In case these elections take place, then, they have no legitimacy, and it proves that the regime does not care about the suffering of the Syrians, the restoration of the unity of the country, the sovereignty of the people over the entire territory of their country, the elimination of corruption and the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions.