GENEVA, October 29. /TASS/. Launching the Syrian Constitutional Committee is only a start of the political procetalks in the Astana format with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"The launch of the Constituional Committee will happen tomorrow, and it will be a start of the long and difficult process of political settlement in Syria," Zarif said. He added that "it is important that this process is acceptable for Syrian people and will represent the result of their efforts and work, as it should look like it was imposed from outside."
"The process of political resolution of the Syrian crisis became possible thanks to guarantors in the Astana process [Russia, Iran, Turkey] and efforts by UN Special Envoy for Syria [Geir Pedersen]," he noted.
Zarif noted the importance of the fact that "all three states insist on maintaining Syria's territorial integrity." "Iran is confident that Syria's territory should be controlled by the Syrian forces and government, which will bear responsibility for ensuring security in the country and along borders," he stressed.
"The international community should support political settlement of the Syrian conflict. There is no military solution to the Syrian crisis," Zarif said.
However, it is important "not to over-estimate the significance of the Constitutional Committee whose task is to improve the constitution," he noted. "There are other issues, including the humanitarian problem, the issue of prisoners and refugees, who should successfully return to their homes," he concluded.
The Syrian Constitutional Committee was formed in accordance with the resolution adopted in January 2018 by the Congress of Syrian National Dialogue in Sochi. The Committee will include 150 people (50 delegates each from the government, opposition and civil society organizations). Each group will appoint 15 experts to participate in sessions of the "draft commission" which will be held behind closed doors in Geneva. The first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will be held on October 30.