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No need to rush launch of Syrian constitutional committee, says Lavrov

The top diplomat stated that 'quality is everything in this case'

© Mikhail Tereschenko/TASS

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Moscow can see no reason to rush the launch of a Syrian constitutional committee, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak on Tuesday.

"We see no reasons to rush this process and artificially create some timeframes. Quality is everything in this case," Lavrov said.

He stressed that attempts to rush things often led to a failure in achieving the desired goals "and unreasonably escalated tensions." "We continue working, our representatives, together with the Iranian and Turkish ones, maintain contact with all the interested parties, including our Syrian colleagues and United Nations officials, with whom they regularly meet," the Russian foreign minister pointed out.

Participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on January 30, decided to establish a constitutional committee that will work on the country’s new constitution together with United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. The committee is supposed to include representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, as well as group of independent politicians.

The UN envoy, who earlier suggested that the committee should consist of no more than 50 members, plans to host a meeting of the committee in Geneva in the near future.

Once the committee issues recommendations on amending the Syrian constitution, a UN-sponsored general election will be held in the country.

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