Lavrentiev: Four Arab countries are ready to host the Syrian Constitutional Committee meetings
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Special Representative for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, confirmed that four Arab countries announced its preparedness to host the Syrian Constitutional Committee meetings.
This comes in his statements to Russian “TASS” news agency, saying: “The Sultanate of Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are ready to host the meetings.”
Lavrentiev pointed out that the talks faltered because of the difficulties to choose an acceptable and adequate venue for all the participating members in these meetings.
Lavrentiev pointed out that Geneva is the only place refused by the Russian side, while Moscow expressed its readiness to work in any other suggested places.
According to the statements, there were suggestions to hold the meetings in both Muscat and Cairo, where the Egyptian option remains on the table, and there was also the option of organizing meetings in Riyadh.
The Russian representative claimed that the Baghdad option was rejected by the Syrian opposition, which considers that Iraq’s support for the Assad regime makes it a non-neutral place.
In October 2019, the United Nations announced the formation of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, with the participation of representatives of the Syrian opposition, the Assad regime, and civil society, and later it began its meetings at the United Nations office in Geneva.
Until July 2022, the Constitutional Committee held only 8 rounds, and since that time the talks have been suspended due to obstruction by Russia and the Assad regime and their refusal to go to Geneva under the pretext that it is no longer neutral.
