The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is set to meet in Geneva this week with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia, and Iran - the partners in the Astana peace process - on the eve of the first meeting of Syria’s new Constitutional Committee, according to Anadolu Agency.
Geir Pedersen told a press conference he would meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday evening, before the committee’s inaugural meeting on Wednesday.
On Sept. 28 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the formation of a body to write a new constitution for Syria following more than eight years of war that have devastated the country and its people.
Pedersen said the official opening of the 150-strong Constitutional Committee meetings will take place at the UN’s Geneva office, calling it a “door opener for a broader political process.”
"The agreement to form the Constitutional Committee is the first political agreement between the Syrian government [Assad regime] and the opposition," he said.
"We are quite aware of the fact that the Constitutional Committee alone cannot solve the conflicts in Syria, it will not solve it. It can only be a step in the process.”
Earlier this month, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi citing the UN special envoy to Syria said that the first meeting of Syrian Constitutional Committee will be held in Geneva on October 30.
KI/PR