UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen held talks in Damascus on Wednesday with the Arab republic's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
"The meeting discussed the military escalation in northern Syria and the economic difficulties faced by the government because of US and European Union sanctions," he said. As the Norwegian diplomat pointed out, "Syria does not need a new war, but peace and a political process."
Pedersen recalled that 9 to 10 million Syrians live in poverty and about 15 million need humanitarian aid. "The international community cannot accept this and our priority is to work with refugees and displaced people," he said.
The UN special envoy's visit to Damascus is linked to his efforts to reopen the Syrian Constitutional Committee (SCC) after eight meetings. Pedersen told the UN Security Council on November 29 that he intended to convince the concerned parties to hold a new round of the CCS in Geneva in early 2023.
The CCS, formed in accordance with a resolution that was adopted on January 31, 2018, in Sochi by the Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue, consists of 150 people (50 delegates each from Damascus, the opposition and civil society). The small group of the committee includes 45 people (15 delegates from each of the three segments). The CCS is to develop recommendations for amendments to the Basic Law of the Republic, after which general elections will be held in Syria under the auspices of the UN.
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Based on materials from TASS