MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russia expects that the results of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress that was held in Sochi will help UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura galvanize work of the Geneva process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at Thursday’s press conference of the Russian and Italian foreign ministers.
"We expect that the results of this congress will help Staffan de Mistura further galvanize work of the Geneva process on negotiations between the government and the opposition chiefly to execute the constitutional reform," he said.
The participants of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress adopted a statement consisting of 12 items which determines the Syrians’ views on the future of their country. The document says that Syria has to preserve sovereignty and territorial integrity and that only the Syrian people themselves can determine its future by way of elections. The Syrians also addressed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, asking to provide assistance in organizing work of the constitutional commission, the mandate of which will be determined within the Geneva process.
According to organizers, 1,511 delegates representing all groups of Syrian society took part in the Sochi forum. According to their nationality, most of the participants are Arabs, but among those invited are also the Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, Abkhazians, Turkomans and the Druze. All major regional and international external players were also invited as observers. One of the forum’s tasks was establishment of a commission to develop a new Syrian constitution.