Baladi News - Journals
The outgoing UN special envoy to Syria told the Security Council Friday that Damascus rejects the composition of a committee proposed by the world body to draw up a new constitution.
Staffan de Mistura, who is due to step down in November, said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had rejected a central element of the committee, which the UN hopes could provide the basis for ending the seven-year civil war.
The special envoy has been working since January on the make-up of a committee to thrash out a new constitution and which would have 150 members: 50 proposed by the Syrian regime, 50 by the opposition and 50 by the UN, to include representatives of civil society and technical experts.
De Mistura said it was the last list of UN-proposed names that the Syrians had rejected during talks on Wednesday.
"Walid Muallem didn't accept a role for the UN in identifying or selecting a third list," the Italian-Swedish diplomat told the Security Council by video conference during a session called for by the United States.
He said Muallem asked that he withdraw the UN list he had submitted, something he said was only possible "if there was an agreement on a new credible, balanced and inclusive list" that complied with UN resolutions and commitments made in January talks in the Russian resort town of Sochi.
Western powers, led by the United States, Britain and France, condemned Syria's obstruction of the committee, which they said needed to be put together without delay.
Muallem had already flagged Syria's objections to the proposal when the latest talks with the UN envoy began on Wednesday, when the Syrian minister stressed that creating a new constitution must be a Syrian-led process and shunned "any foreign interference."
Source: The Mail Online