ASTANA, November 11. /TASS/. Russia hopes that the venue of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will be determined by the end of the year, Russia’s president representative for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev has told the media.
"We will discuss with him [UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen] the Constitutional Committee’s further work. Regrettably, this regular session has been stalled for two years. We hope that by the end of this year we will be able to decide on a suitable platform and start working actively in this direction," he said.
Lavrentiev noted that the parties concerned will discuss with Pedersen the political process in Syria and humanitarian aspects.
"We are very happy that he has arrived in person. We will discuss political process issues. The political process itself, of course, in the current conditions of the global surge of tensions and armed confrontation in the Middle East, at first glance, seems to fade into the background. But apparently, we should not loosen our grip and we must continue our efforts," the special representative said. "We will also try to consider humanitarian aspects with him so that we can make some decisions."
The latest meeting of the Constitutional Committee in May 2022 ended inconclusively. The next meeting was scheduled for 2023, but it never took place. The committee’s meetings were held in Geneva. Russia has repeatedly pointed out that Switzerland has lost its status of a neutral venue, including in connection with problems in issuing visas to delegates.