ANKARA, September 16. /TASS/. The Syrian constitutional committee is nearly formed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, parts of which were transmitted by the Rossiya-24 TV channel. Putin noted that members of the committee must act independently, without outside pressure.
"We can say that the work (on approving the members of the constitutional committee - TASS) is practically complete. The only thing we have to do is achieve that the work procedure of the committee is approved, and, first and foremost, that members of this committee act independently and do not succumb to any external pressure," the Russian leader said. "This is another stage of our joint work. However, keeping in mind that so far, we have been reaching positive results, in my opinion, we can achieve a positive result here as well," the president added. Putin noted "a significant leading role" of Turkey and its president on the issue of approving a list of candidates for the Syrian Constitutional Committee.
Putin noted that during the one-on-one meeting with Erdogan, which preceded expanded talks with the delegations, they have discussed the Syrian crisis and its regulation in detail. According to the Russian president, they touched upon "sensitive issues" related to the situation in the Idlib zone and along the eastern shore of the Euphrates. "We have complicated feelings on the situation in the Euphrates area: the situation there continues to be very tense. We understand how important this is for maintaining the territorial integrity of the Syrian republic and the lawful rights of its neighbors, namely, Turkey, to ensure their security," the Russian leader said.
The Russian leader noted that both countries’ leaders stated the need for more coordinated work on certain issues, agreeing to give an additional impetus in this sphere to Russian and Turkish defense and foreign ministries, along with the countries’ special services.
The Syrian Constitutional Committee
Earlier, the Al-Watan daily informed that Syrian authorities and a delegation of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, which visited Damascus on Sunday, endorsed the members of Syria’s Constitutional Committee. The talks were held between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian delegation consisting of Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin. The sides "fully approved the names of members of the Constitutional Committee and the ratio of its participants," the paper said. According to the paper’s sources, the sides did not discuss this committee’s future work and therefore no agreement on this issue was reached.
On September 9, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov stated that the Syrian Constitutional Committee should be formed in September. UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen mentioned the same timeframe earlier.