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Conflict in Syria

UN envoy: Small Drafting Body of Syrian Constitutional Committee to convene on Oct. 18

The previous session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee’s Small Drafting Body was held in Geneva in January

UNITED NATIONS, September 28. /TASS/. The Small Drafting Body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will gather in Geneva, Switzerland in October, UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

"Today, there is some good news to report. Following eight months of intensive facilitation with the Co-Chairs, I am pleased to announce that agreement is in place on methodology, and 3 invitations have been issued for a 6th Session of the Committee," the diplomat said. "The Small Drafting Body will convene in Geneva as of 18 October, and the Co-Chairs will for the first time meet the day before together with me to prepare the session."

"In short, we should all now expect the Constitutional Committee to begin to work seriously on a process of drafting - not just preparing - a constitutional reform. If it does that, then we will have a different and credible constitutional process," the UN envoy continued.

"We need, indeed, to find a genuine intra-Syrian political dialogue - something that was reportedly discussed when [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin met [Syrian] President [Bashar] Assad in Moscow recently - and through this, a genuine process of Syrian political reform," he added.

The previous session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee’s Small Drafting Body was held in Geneva in January.

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