A senior assistant to the Iranian foreign minister met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday to discuss the formation of a constitutional committee, as part of efforts to restore peace to the Arab country, ahead of this week’s high-level talks in Geneva, Switzerland.
Hossein Jaberi Ansari also briefed Assad on latest arrangements for the Geneva meeting between officials from Iran, Russia and Turkey, following the recent agreement on the formation of the constitutional committee, Syria’s presidential media office was cited as saying by ISNA.
During January talks in Russia’s Sochi, brokered by Iran, Russia and Turkey that act as guarantors of Syria’s peace process, an initial agreement was reached on forming a constitutional committee made up of 150 members from the Syrian government and opposition as well as independent groups to reform the constitution and hold new elections.
Jaberi said Iran is willing to continue its consultations and cooperation with the Damascus government “that has shown great flexibility over the agreement”.
Overcoming Obstacles
Assad praised Iran’s efforts to facilitate the formation of the committee despite “major obstacles created by supporters of terrorism”.
He stressed the importance of attempts by Syria’s allies, especially Iran and Russia, to prevent the interference of certain western states and create a Syria-led political process without any foreign intervention.
The multi-sided civil war that has been ongoing in Syria for over seven years has killed around 400,000 people and forced thousands of others to flee their homes.
Attempts to find a solution to the Syrian conflict and bring stability to the Middle East began in late 2011 by the international community. The Astana peace process is the latest initiative launched in January 2017 by Russia, Iran and Turkey in the Kazakh capital.
The latest meeting in Kazakhstan was held last month between Syria’s warring sides and mediators to discuss the composition of the constitutional committee but failed to reach an agreement. The three countries said in a joint statement issued after the talks that they would intensify consultations to establish the committee as soon as possible.
The current Geneva talks led by United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura focus on forming a “credible, balanced and inclusive” committee to draft a new constitution for Syria and usher in elections.
