GENEVA, October 31. /TASS/. No senior members of the Syrian government or the opposition are among members of the Syrian Constiutional Committee, which began its work in Geneva earlier this week, according to lists handed over to TASS by the office of the UN Special Envoy on Syria, Geir Pedersen.
The lists include several former and current members of parliament, as well as university rectors and journalists.
The government’s delegation includes Ahmed Farouk Arnus, an aide to the Syrian foreign minister. However, no other senior officials are on the list.
At the same time, the list of the opposition’s delegates has no names of the people who at some point headed major opposition groups or delegations to various international-level talks, such as Ahmad Jarba, Naser Al-Hariri, Riyad Hijab.
Apparently, the committee’s make-up is aimed at preventing previous conflicts from hampering the commission’s work.
The first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee has begun on October 30 in Geneva.
The decision to set up a constitutional committee was made during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian resort of Sochi on January 30, 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 each to be fielded by Damascus, opposition and civil societies. Each group is also obliged to name 15 experts to take part in meetings held in Geneva behind closed doors.