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Astana guarantors, Small Group invited to Syria’s Constitutional Committee meeting

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen added that "since China has since then been the only member of the P5 that for now have been in Geneva"

UNITED NATIONS, September 28. /TASS/. Russia, Turkey and Iran, which are guarantors of the Astana process, along with the Small Group (comprising the UK, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United States and France) and China have been invited to attend the first meeting the Syrian Constitutional Committee, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said in an exclusive interview with TASS on Saturday.

"It’s not a secret that I have wanted to make sure that the Astana guarantor [nations] should be there, members of the Small Group should be there and China," he said after the establishment of the committee had been announced.

Pedersen added that "since China has since then been the only member of the P5 [five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council] that for now have been there [in Geneva]."

Pedersen expressed the hope that "when the Syrian parties have now managed to agree to come together for the first time in this manner and to start working on their own constitution, that it will possible for the key members of the international community to come together too and to express their support."

"So I am now in the middle of the dialogue with two different elements of international community to see how best we can do this. And I hope maybe I can say a little bit more also on Monday on this," he said.

On September 23, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the establishment of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, thanking Russia, Iran and Turkey for their efforts in this area and adding that the first session of the committee will take place within the next few weeks.

On January 30, 2018, the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, agreed to set up a constitutional committee that would be tasked with drafting a new constitution for Syria. Pedersen’s predecessor, Staffan de Mistura, planned that the committee would draw on a pool of 150 names (50 delegates each to be fielded by Damascus, opposition and civil societies).