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UN Syria Envoy Voices Dismay at Lack of Progress in Constitutional Talks

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen speaks at a press conference after a meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen speaks at a press conference after a meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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UN Syria Envoy Voices Dismay at Lack of Progress in Constitutional Talks

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen speaks at a press conference after a meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, January 29, 2021. (Reuters)
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen speaks at a press conference after a meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, January 29, 2021. (Reuters)

The UN special envoy for Syria expressed disappointment Friday after five days of meetings between delegations from the Syrian government, opposition and civil society groups aimed at revising the constitution of the war-torn country ended without progress.

“I told the 45 members of the drafting bodies we can’t continue like this," Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva, at the end of the latest, fifth round of the Constitutional Committee for Syria.

Pedersen hinted the Syrian government delegation was to blame for the lack of progress. The UN envoy said he presented a proposal to the heads of the government and opposition delegations, adding that his proposal was rejected by the government team and accepted by the opposition.

The United States and several Western allies have accused Syrian president Bashar Assad of deliberately stalling and delaying the drafting of a new constitution until after presidential elections are held this year to avoid a UN-supervised vote, as called for by the UN Security Council.

According to Syria’s elections law, presidential elections are to take place between April 16 and May 16 — at least 90 days before Assad’s current seven-year term in office expires. Assad has been in power since 2000.

Pedersen said there is no agreed time for another meeting. He will be briefing the UN Security Council on Feb. 9, after which he will give further details about what was discussed.

“This week has been a disappointment,” Pedersen said. “I set out a few things I thought we should be able to achieve before we started this meeting and I’m afraid we did not manage to achieve these things.”

Syria’s nearly 10-year conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war 23 million population, including more than 5 million refugees mostly in neighboring countries.

At a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. It took until September 2019 before a committee was formed.

A 45-member committee started its meetings in Geneva on Monday. This week’s meetings involved 15 people from each delegation.

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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah

Cyprus stands ready to help eliminate Syria’s remaining chemical weapons stockpiles and to support a search for people whose fate remains unknown after more than a decade of war, the top Cypriot diplomat said Saturday.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus’ offer is grounded on its own past experience both with helping rid Syria of chemical weapons 11 years ago and its own ongoing, decades-old search for hundreds of people who disappeared amid fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s and a 1974 Turkish invasion, The AP reported.

Cyprus in 2013 hosted the support base of a mission jointly run by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons.

“As a neighboring country located just 65 miles from Syria, Cyprus has a vested interest in Syria’s future. Developments there will directly impact Cyprus, particularly in terms of potential new migratory flows and the risks of terrorism and extremism,” Kombos told The AP in written replies to questions.

Kombos said there are “profound concerns” among his counterparts across the region over Syria’s future security, especially regarding a possible resurgence of extremist groups like ISIS in a fragmented and polarized society.

“This is particularly critical in light of potential social and demographic engineering disguised as “security” arrangements, which could further destabilize the country,” Kombos said.

The diplomat also pointed to the recent proliferation of narcotics production like the stimulant Captagon that is interconnected with smuggling networks involved in people and arms trafficking.

Kombos said ongoing attacks against Syria’s Kurds must stop immediately, given the role that Kurdish forces have played in combating extremist forces like the ISIS group in the past decade.

Saleh Muslim, a member of the Kurdish Presidential Council, said in an interview that the Kurds primarily seek “equality” enshrined in rights accorded to all in any democracy.

He said a future form of governance could accord autonomy to the Kurds under some kind of federal structure.

“But the important thing is to have democratic rights for all the Syrians and including the Kurdish people,” he said.

Muslim warned that the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, near Syria’s border with Türkiye, is in “very big danger” of falling into the hands of Turkish-backed forces, and accused Türkiye of trying to occupy it.

Kombos said the international community needs to ensure that the influence Türkiye is trying to exert in Syria is “not going to create an even worse situation than there already is.”

“Whatever the future landscape in Syria, it will have a direct and far-reaching impact on the region, the European Union and the broader international community,” Kombos said.