The UN Secretary-General's Special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, will hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on September 3, the permanent representative of Russia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, told in an open interview with the first Deputy Director General of TASS, Mikhail Gusman.
"Our contacts with [Geir] Pedersen have almost regular character. And tomorrow, he will be in Moscow, where he will hold talks with the Foreign Minister [of Russia Sergey Lavrov]," he said.
Gatilov recalled that at the end of August, the UN Geneva headquarters hosted a face-to-face meeting of the drafting group of the Syrian Constitutional Committee with the participation of delegations of the Syrian government and the opposition. "In general, according to our assessment, the negotiation round was held in a positive and constructive manner. Especially, considering that the topics are very sensitive and any moment there can cause problems on one side or the other. But this time the discussion was held on the agreed agenda. And we can even say that on a number of issues, both the government delegation and the opposition were close, or at least did not strongly contradict each other in their assessments," the diplomat stressed.
Gatilov believes that following the meeting of the Constitutional Committee's drafting group, we can talk about some progress, but the movement towards the future structure of Syria is just beginning. "We believe that it is important not to rush, not to press and not to put pressure on the Syrians. Give them the opportunity to figure out for themselves how they see their future. < ... > We do not need to force this process, as some Western partners are trying to do, into an artificial time frame. It is necessary to assist Syrians very carefully in reaching agreements that would meet the interests of the entire Syrian society," he added.
The drafting group of the Syrian Constitutional Committee met on August 24 at the UN headquarters in Geneva for its third meeting after a nearly nine-month hiatus caused by the pandemic. It was planned that 45 delegates (15 each from the Syrian government, the opposition and civil society) would discuss the issue of the country's "national foundations and principles". Due to the detection of coronavirus in four members of the group, the Special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen, decided to suspend work. On August 27, the drafting group continued its work.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS