Russia hopes the upcoming meeting of Syria's Constitutional Committee in Geneva in January will be able to get down to substantive work on the text of the country's Basic Law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Wednesday.
"The last meeting, which was on December 4, was very promising. So, with cautious optimism, I will say. We expect that the fifth session of the drafting commission, which is scheduled for the second half of January, will already be a stage of transition to substantive work on the constitution," the minister said.
He also noted that he discussed the settlement in Syria during today's talks with Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdel Rahman Al Thani. "We have a consensus on the need to fully implement UNSC Resolution 2254. We spoke about the steps being taken within the framework of the Astana format involving Russia, Turkey and Iran, and about how the work is going on in the Geneva platform, where the Constitutional Committee and its drafting commission are functioning," Lavrov pointed out.
The fourth meeting of the small group of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which includes representatives of the Syrian government, the opposition and civil society, was held in Geneva from November 30 to December 4. The sides failed to reach any concrete agreements. UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Geir Pedersen said that the fifth session was scheduled for January 25.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS