Middle East: The Assad regime shows importance of reconstruction in exchange for postponing the political process

Middle East newspaper said in a report today, Sunday, that the Assad regime is showing importance of reconstruction in return for postponing the political process.

The newspaper’s report added that the Assad regime is setting its sights on reconstruction and relief funds, by postponing the date of Geir Pedersen’s visit and the reception of Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

The report that the Assad regime would pressure the UN official to take a clear stance against the Western sanctions imposed on him, and against Ankara’s position on cutting off water through the Allouk station east of the Euphrates and lowering the river level.

The report clarified that the clash between the Assad regime and the West’s interpretation of the international humanitarian aid decision will not be possible in the political sphere, because the regime has not yet agreed to receive Pedersen, despite the intervention of Russia, which promised to facilitate the visit, and to agree on the work mechanism of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

For his part, Pedersen wants to go to Damascus to negotiate the international mechanism for the constitution. Last April, he sent to the Syrian parties a document in which he outlined a 5-step mechanism for the start of the constitutional committee in the sixth round of its meetings to draft the constitution, which the opposition accepted with” Reservations,” while the Assad regime rejected it and presented a counter-proposal restricting it.

The report concluded that the current bet is that Moscow will move to persuade the Assad regime to receive Pedersen, to return to finding the horizon of a settlement and the Geneva track under the auspices of the United Nations.