September 24. /TASS/. The Syrian Constitutional Committee has been formed as a result of cooperation between Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during a meeting with Senior Aide of the Iranian Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs, Ali Asghar Khaji in the Syrian capital.
"Syrian-Iranian-Russian coordination led to the realization of the committee for discussing the constitution despite all obstacles and hurdles that other sides which support terrorism tried to impose," the SANA news agency quotes al-Assad as saying. "Despite the barriers, we have managed to come to a final agreement on the format of the committee’s work," he said.
The Syrian leader added that the US and Western states "lost their hope in achieving the goals they had planned for before" in Syria, which is why they are applying the policy of "depleting resources" against Syria, as they do in Iran.
On Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the establishment of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, thanking Russia, Iran and Turkey for their efforts in this area.
The decision to set up a constitutional committee was made during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian resort city of Sochi on January 31, 2018. According to the plan proposed by former UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, the committee is made up of 150 people — 50 delegates to be fielded by Damascus, opposition and civil societies each. Each group is also obliged to name 15 experts to take part in meetings held in Geneva behind closed doors.