UN, December 14. /TASS/. Russia sees no alternative to the plan to create the Syrian constitutional committee, Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya told the UN Security Council session.
"We would like to stress: there is still no viable alternative to the constitutional committee," he said. ‘We call upon everyone to engage in a collective effort to establish an all-encompassing political process under the UN aegis, which is critically important for Syria."
"We still assume that all parameters of the committee’s work should be approved by Syrians themselves. Only in this case it will be efficient and viable," the Russian diplomat added.
The decision to set up a constitutional committee to lay down recommendations on amendments to the Syrian constitution was made at the January 30 meeting of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, hosted by Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi. The government and the opposition have already submitted their lists of representatives to that body, but the process is delayed by the lack of consent over candidates from the civil society, who will hold one third of seats in the future committee.