SYRIA COMMITTEE TO DRAFT ‘CODE OF CONDUCT’ ON ITS DELIBERATIONS
Heated exchanges between government members and opposition led to formation of meeting document
Syria’s Constitutional Committee agreed to draft a “code of conduct” deal in hopes of charting a political settlement and negotiate an end to the war.
The committee, comprised of government and opposition members as well as civil society, is a step forward in what the United Nations says will be a long road to political rapprochement.
Each side has 50 members. “Not only did we agree on an agenda but also managed to agree via consensus on the code of conduct for the deliberations of the meetings and when I left, I said I was very impressed by the 150 members,” the UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pederson, said on Friday.
Mr Pederson described the progress of the last two days of meeting as “very good”.
“After eight and a half years of conflict there are deep differences and a lot of suspicion as well as a lack of trust between all sides,” he said.
But the fact “that a large number of Syrians are sitting together discussing the future of their country is quite impressive,” he said.
Yahya Al Aridi, opposition member of the delegation, told
The National, that the agreement is based on “how to conduct and chair sessions”.
The agreement, given to The
National, stipulates that “all sides must negotiate in a respectful and dignified manner and in a hostile free environment.”
“All sides must respect each other’s views and must avoid inflammatory hate speech and attacks on members of the committee.”
Reports said heated confrontations erupted on Thursday between committee members during its first official session.
Ahmad Kuzbari, the committee’s government co-chair, hit out at “terrorism” – a reference to the rebels and hailed “the sacrifices and heroic deeds of our army” in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
His comments reportedly fanned discord during Thursday’s meeting.
“The regime delegation began to create chaos during Thursday’s meeting and accused the opposition delegation of terrorism. Civil society members intervened and scored a point of order to end these provocations,” an opposition member, who chose to remain anonymous, told The National.
The 150-member committee is designed to pave the way for political reform and free and fair, UN-supervised elections in Syria, where the war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee since March 2011.
It remains unclear when the talks will end.
But experts believe that there are very limited prospects for a negotiated agreement between the two sides.
“The government continues to cling to the argument that Syria has a modern constitution, which was created in 2012. The opposition continues to question the legitimacy of Al Assad’s leadership and argues that the constitutional reform process will not change Syria,” Samuel Ramani, a doctoral researcher in International Relations at the University of Oxford, told The National.
“It could create visible symbols of change, but will not seriously deal with Al Assad’s executive power, promote pluralism or oversee security sector reform,” he said.
The opposition’s goals of separation of powers are clear, Mr Ramani said, and that “the government’s willingness to compromise is less certain and a continuation of this trend guarantees deadlock.”
The development came as members of the international community hailed the launch of the committee.
The US, UK, Germany, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement on Thursday that praised UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Mr Pedersen for their efforts.
“We support efforts to create a safe and neutral environment that enables Syria to hold free and fair elections, under UN supervision,” the statement said.