EXCLUSIVE: United Nations’ Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, has managed to convince the Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad on the names of the members of the Constitutional Committee, which includes leaders of the opposition.
Several months of negotiations between the UN and other stakeholders in Syrian conflict, including Russia, Iran and Turkey, have made a significant progress in drafting a constitutional committee.
Sources said that one suggestion was that the passage of any clause would require at least a 100 or more members to come to an agreement. This makes the affiliations of the 50 members from civil society of consequence. The Syrian government was not allowed to object to the names of the representatives of the opposition but it did make it hard for the UN envoy to compile a list of civil society representatives.
Another source from the diplomatic community added: “Five days ago we were told that there was a dispute over four names while the rest have been agreed upon.” In December 2015, the UN passed Resolution 2254, which demands “political transition” in Syria. The wording was left ambiguous deliberately. It gave room for Western nations opposing Assad to interpret it to mean transition from Assad to someone else while Russia could insist it merely meant political reforms leading to free and fair elections. The Syria policy of the international community, including the US and the EU, is governed by 2254.
On April 8, following talks with his Turkish counterpart, the Russian president said that the constitution committee would start its work soon.
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