This week's Syrian Constitutional Committee meeting ends

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – This week's meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, seeking a solution to the ongoing civil war, ended on Friday with the UN special envoy for Syria saying in a statement that he "appreciated the tone" of the talks.

Geir Pedersen after the fifth day of talks said he "appreciated the tone and substantive nature of the dialogue in the room" and that the regime in Syria and the opposition sides had agreed on the next session to resume in Geneva from July 25 to 29.

The last round of talks for a solution to the war in Syria had ended in Geneva on March 25, with none of the parties offering any signs they would proceed to another level of negotiations.

Members of the "Small Group" responsible for writing the constitution -- comprising 15 representatives from the Bashar Assad regime, non-governmental organizations, and the Syrian opposition -- met for the eighth round of talks at a Geneva hotel.

Pedersen said the draft constitutional texts of each side were discussed on the first day of the current session with a chair from the regime and opposition sides present.

Delegations submitted revisions to their texts on the fifth day after the week's discussions.

- Differences and common ground

"On some, the differences remained significant," said Pedersen. "There were areas of potential common ground on others."

The special envoy also said he had "identified the slow pace of work and the continuing inability to identify and conclude concrete areas of provisional agreement as areas where there is much room for improvement."

The two chairs agreed with him on the importance of speeding up the work and producing results.

Pedersen reiterated his "appeal to all members to work with a sense of compromise and towards constitutional texts that would likely attract broad support among Syrians."

Among issues discussed this week were "unilateral coercive measures from a constitutional standpoint," preserving and strengthening state institutions, the supremacy of the constitution and the hierarchy of international agreements, and transitional justice.

There had been a slight breakthrough during the sixth round of meetings in Geneva on Oct. 18-22 last year, when the Assad regime's delegation co-chair Ahmed Kuzbari sat at the same table for the first time with the co-chair of the opposition Hadi al-Bahra.

Pedersen had said in October that there was "great disappointment" after the failure of the sixth round, and he criticized the Assad regime by naming it for the first time.

After the seventh round of talks in March, the regime side did not comment while leaving the talks.

Opposition sources had told Anadolu Agency that "no agreements were reached" on the draft revision on constitutional articles.

Established in 2019 with the support of the UN, the Syrian Constitutional Committee consists of two structures -- large and small.

The large structure includes all committee members, comprising three groups: the regime, the opposition delegation, and civil society representatives.

The large 150-person structure must approve the drafts prepared by the 45-person editorial board, and at least 75% of the members must support a decision for it to be adopted.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.

According to UN estimates, hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and millions more displaced.