Iran, Russia, Turkey to Announce Formation of Syria Constitutional Committee

The agreement was reached in a trilateral meeting of the representatives in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday.

The meeting of the guarantor states of Astana Talks on Syria was attended by Iranian foreign minister’s special assistant for political affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, and deputy undersecretary for foreign affairs of Turkey Sedat Onal.

The top negotiators of the three countries finalised the draft document of the final statement of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran which would be held in Geneva on Tuesday, December 18.

It will be stipulated in the statement that the committee has been established through the joint intensive efforts of the three guarantor states and their close contact with the Syrian parties and the representative of the United Nations Secretary-General.

The statement will also officially announce the composition and names of the representatives of the government, opposition and civil society in the Syrian constitution committee will be officially announced.

Following their trilateral meeting, the senior negotiators from the three guarantor states of the Astana talks also met with UN’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura at the UN headquarters in the Swiss city.

They listed the names of the representatives of Syria’s civil society in the committee and made the required arrangements for the trilateral and quadrilateral meeting of the three foreign ministers and de Mistura.

Before travelling to Geneva through Beirut, Iran’s Jaberi Ansari had an urgent and two-hour visit to Damascus Sunday night, where he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and discussed the latest developments regarding the Syrian constitution committee.

Iran, Turkey, and Russia, the three guarantor states of the Astana Process, agreed to form a constitutional committee during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress on January 30, 2018 in the Russian city of Sochi.