UN Special Envoy for Syria Gir Pederson has announced the end of the fifth round of talks between the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, calling them “disappointing.”
Pederson said in Geneva on Friday evening that he would soon travel to Damascus to inform Syrian leaders of the failure of the week-long 5th round of talks between the Constitutional Committee to draft a new constitution for the troubled country.
He added, “I informed 45 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee that we cannot continue like this, and this week was disappointing. We can only continue the meetings if we make changes.”
The 45-member committee, made up of representatives from the Syrian government, opposition and civil society, is working to draft a new constitution to move the political process toward a U.N.-observed election.
The fifth round of talks of the Syrian Constitutional Committee took place in Geneva last week and focused on the principles of the Syrian constitution; however, there is no set timetable for the end of these meetings.
The idea of forming a constitutional committee first became concrete at the Syrian National Dialogue Congress held in Sochi on January 29-30, 2018.
The agreement on holding such a Syrian National Dialogue Congress was reached in November 2017 by the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia – the guarantors of the Astana process – at a meeting in Russia.
At Iran’s initiative, the Astana peace talks for Syria began in January 2017 in cooperation with Russia and Turkey.
by Jeremy Abbott – American Correspondent – WPN