New round of talks on constitution for Syria to begin on March 21 in Geneva

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - The office of the special UN envoy on Syria said on Friday that a new round of talks involving the Constitutional Committee seeking a solution to the ongoing 11-year war in the country will resume in Geneva for five days from March 21.

The last such talks, which involved both the regime and the opposition, ended in Geneva on Oct. 22, 2021 and were described as a "disappointment" by the Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen at the time.

The special envoy's office said that the seventh round of the Constitutional Committee Small Body will meet behind closed doors in Geneva, but not at UN European headquarters at the Palais des Nations.

"The Constitutional Committee will be meeting in closed sessions and off-site," said the statement.

Pedersen told the UN Security Council in New York on Feb. 25: "Militarily, front lines remain unshifted, but we still see all signs of an ongoing hot conflict.

"Any of a number of flashpoints could ignite a broader conflagration. We continue to see mutual shelling, skirmishes, IEDs (improvised explosive device), and security incidents across frontlines in the northwest, the northeast, and the southwest.”

"It is plain that there is a stalemate, that there is acute suffering, and that a political solution is the only way out. This requires a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political process, which must be supported by constructive international diplomacy – however hard that is, and especially right now,” he added.

When the last round of talks ended on Oct. 22 last year, Pedersen said: "Today's talks were a huge disappointment."

"We didn't achieve what we hoped to achieve. I think we lacked a proper understanding of how to move that process forward. So, in the end, it was the government delegation that decided not to present any new text," he added.