Turkey, Iran, Russia urge Syrian constitution process to be free from foreign interference

ANKARA

Turkey, Iran and Russia have urged the Syrian Constitutional Committee on Jan. 28 to seek compromise and consensus among the sides to the decade-long civil war and urged to work independently from “foreign interference.”

Following consultations on the margins of the fifth meeting of the Constitutional Committee, a joint statement of the guarantor countries said the work of the Committee “should be governed by a sense of compromise and constructive engagement without foreign interference and externally imposed timelines aimed at reaching a general agreement of its members that would enable the outcome to receive the widest possible support by the Syrian people.”

Syria’s warring parties gathered in Geneva between Jan. 25-29 for another round of U.N.-mediated peace talks aimed at drafting a new constitution as a preamble to U.N.-supervised elections in Syria.

Iran, Turkey and Russia also had a trilateral meeting on the margins of the Constitutional Committee’s Drafting Commission meeting and the guarantor countries held consultations with the Syrian delegates and the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for SyriaGeir O. Pedersen, said the statement.

The guarantor countries have welcomed the committee meeting and reaffirmed the readiness to support its work through continuous interaction with the Syrian delegates and the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy, as a facilitator, in order to ensure its sustainable and effective functioning.

The declaration reaffirmed their “strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and emphasized that these principles should be respected by all sides.”

The next international meeting on Syria in the Astana format will take place in Sochi on Feb.16-17, 2021, the statement concluded.

The Astana peace process to end the Syrian conflict was launched in January 2017 by Turkey, Russia and Iran.

Syria has been ravaged by a multifaceted civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.