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Conflict in Syria

No deadlines admissible in Syrian constitutional committee’s work — Lavrov

The first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will be held on October 30

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

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Russia, Turkey actively support launch of Syrian Constitutional Committee — Lavrov

GENEVA, October 29. /TASS/. It is inadmissible to impose any deadlines in the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"We express the hope that members of the Constitutional Committee will be guided by the striving for compromise, will cooperate constructively and will not be subject for pressure from outside. No artificial deadlines should be imposed on the work of this committee as it should be geared towards the broadest accord," Lavrov said.

The decision to set up a constitutional committee to work out recommendations on amendments to the Syrian constitution was passed at the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Russia’s Sochi in January 2018. The committee is comprised of 150 people, i.e. 50 delegates from the Syrian government, 50 delegates from the opposition, and 50 delegates from civil society. Each group is to appoint 15 experts to gather for closed-door consultations in Geneva. The first session of the committee is scheduled for October 30.

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