Russia welcomes the resumption of the work of the Syrian Constitutional committee in Geneva and hopes that the parties will be able to reach agreements, Alexander Lavrentyev, the Russian president's special representative for Syria, told TASS.
"We certainly welcome the start of work and hope that the parties will be able to reach agreements on constitutional reform," he said Tuesday on his arrival in Geneva.
Lavrentyev also said that the Russian delegation intends to hold meetings with colleagues in the Astana format (Russia, Iran, Turkey) on the margins of the sixth round of discussions of the Syrian Constitutional committee in Geneva. "We are here to work on the margins [of the constitutional committee meeting]. This is naturally an intra-Syrian dialogue, we can't exert any influence or pressure on it. Delegations from Iran and Turkey have arrived here in the Astana format. We'll see what we can do next and what kind of assistance we can give in advancing the political process," he said.
The Russian president's special representative said that all the delegates of the Syrian constitutional committee at the preliminary consultations showed their willingness to reach agreements during the sixth round of meetings in Geneva. "Of course, we have certain hopes that we will be able to overcome the earlier difficulties, start working on the constitution itself and reach certain agreements. We are getting the same signals from the office of [UN secretary-general's special envoy for Syria Geir] Pedersen that there are grounds for this, at least that was the mood of the delegations during all the preliminary consultations that Mr. Pedersen held with pro-government and opposition delegates," he pointed out.
The day before, the sixth round of discussions on constitutional reform in Syria was launched at the UN headquarters in Geneva after a nine-month break. It is expected that the meeting of the small group of the constitutional committee consisting of 45 experts (15 from the government, the opposition and civil society) will last at least a week.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Evgeny Biyatov / POOL / TASS
Based on materials from TASS