The Syrian Negotiating Committee (SNC) expressed its wish that the next meeting of the Constitutional Committee be held in the Saudi capital. This came as Damascus and its supporter, Moscow, asked UN envoy Geir Pedersen to change the location of the scheduled meetings in Geneva.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the head of the SNC, Badr Jamous, said: In my capacity as Chairman of the Negotiating Committee, I asked the United Nations and informed the brothers in Saudi Arabia of our desire for the meetings to be held in Riyadh, especially since the Negotiating Committee was formed in the Saudi capital.
He continued: “We will be honored to hold the meetings in Riyadh, which represents our Arab depth and has supported the Syrian people since the first day of the revolution.”
Jamous criticized the Syrian regime delegation for “trying to play the game of the place and have the meeting held in Baghdad.”
“But what is more important: Does it really want to discuss the constitution and the political solution, or continue the game by moving meetings from one place to another?” He asked.
For his part, Pedersen said in a briefing before the Security Council at the end of February that the Russian Federation “no longer considers Switzerland a neutral venue, and the Syrian Government did not accept Geneva as a result.”
“With no consensus among the Syrian parties, [Pedersen] issued formal invitations for a ninth round in Geneva in late April, appealing to them to respond positively — and to all key international stakeholders to support the UN as a facilitator and refrain from interfering regarding a venue the Syrian parties themselves had formally agreed,” a UN press release said.
On Sunday, the UN envoy renewed his call on the Syrian government to go to Geneva to participate in the next meeting of the Constitutional Committee, at the end of April, warning that things were going “in the wrong direction.”
Following his meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Miqdad, Pedersen said that he informed the latter that “as long as there is no agreement between the opposition and the government, we must continue to meet in Geneva, develop the Constitutional Committee, and work in a way that can give hope to the Syrian people.”
