The new United Nations envoy who was tasked with producing peace in Syria hopes to assemble a constitutional committee “as soon as possible” in Geneva, the envoy has said on Friday without providing a firm timeframe for the latest attempt to put an end to the country’s destructive war.
According to Reuters news reports, the formation of a constitutional committee is a key to the political reforms including new elections which were meant to unify Syria and put an end to an eight-year-old civil war in Syria which has, till so far, killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.
The forth Syria mediator Geir Pedersen said he had ideas about how to construct confidence and trust between the two sides, who have yet addressed nine rounds of fruitless talks.
Pedersen told reporters, “I think we have identified the challenges and we have agreed on how we should move forward and that I see as a very, very positive sign.” He added, “My hope (is) that they will be able as soon as possible to have the constitution committee to meet in Geneva.”
Last year, Syrian opposition had agreed to join a process of rewriting constitution under the UN auspices with following the peacemaking summit in Sochi city, in Russia.
But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has objected to world body naming members of the constitutional committee.
Though, Pedersen claimed he could be not more specific over the timeframe for a conference of the committee, but also said his discussion was good with relevant parties.
When asked if he failed to end the war by the end of his tenure, Pedersen said his aim was to negotiate a deal between the two parties.
He said: “To be able to get to a situation where you can say that we have been able to put eight years of conflict behind us and that we as Syrians agree that we will begin the process of creating a future for coming Syrians, that … would be the definition that we have been successful.”
Last month in Riyadh, Pedersen met with the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), where Syrian forces made large territorial gains over the battlefield, largely thanked Iranian and Russian support.
So far, Turkey, Iran and Russia have failed to agree over reforming of the constitutional committee.
Pedersen said he saw the constitutional committee as “a potential door opener” for a political process.