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Lavrov, UN envoy for Syria to discuss Syrian constitutional committee

No press conference is planned to take place following talks between Lavrov and Pedersen

MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with new United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Monday. Lavrov said ahead of the meeting that the UN envoy was expected to clarify his view of ways to resolve the Syria issue politically, as well as on the launch of a constitutional committee.

Pedersen took office on January 7, replacing Staffan de Mistura. He made his first visit to Damascus last week and held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Pedersen described the meeting as positive, saying that he planned to make regular visits to the Syrian capital.

No press conference is planned to take place following talks between Lavrov and Pedersen.

Rush or delay?

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed earlier that establishing a Syrian constitutional committee would be the center of attention during talks between the UN envoy and the Russian top diplomat.

On January 30, 2018, participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, decided to establish a constitutional committee that would work on the country’s new constitution. The committee is supposed to include representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, as well as civil society members. Each of the groups will have one-third of seats in the committee. The foreign ministers of the three guarantors of the Astana process (Russia, Iran and Turkey) handed a committee member list to then UN Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura. The ministers also said in a statement that the first meeting of the Syrian constitutional committee was expected to take place in early 2019. However, de Mistura’s position did not make it possible for the parties to agree on committee members.

The envoy said later that the United Nations doubted the legitimacy of some candidates. In response, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said that the committee’s legitimacy was based on an agreement between the Syrian parties and not on decisions made by the Small Group on Syria (the United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United States and France), which has been trying to impose its own candidate list.

Guterres said last week that the United Nations did not plan to set any deadlines for the launch of the constitutional committee. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that it would happen soon. Meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister warned against delaying the committee’s setup.

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