Syria’s constitutional ‘drafting body’ begins talks on reforms in first step towards peace
▶ Despite UN saying process will be owned and led by Syrians, experts feel outcome will rely on Russia
The Syrian constitutional committee’s drafting body yesterday began talks on political reforms that could lead to elections and end more than eight years of war.
An agreement to form the 150-member committee comprised of delegates from the government, opposition and society was reached at a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in Sochi in January last year.
A core “drafting body” of 45 – 15 from each of the three parties – will carry out the more difficult work of fleshing out the text.
Decisions need the approval at least of 75 per cent of the delegates to prevent any one group from dominating the debate and imposing its agenda.
The drafting committee will hold four-hour sessions daily.
Talks are expected to last until Friday, although the UN has not specified a time limit.
UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pederson, said last week that major world powers would not take part directly in the “Syrian-owned, Syrian-led” constitutional talks, but they supported the process.
The talks have taken place despite Turkey’s launch of a cross-border offensive in early October after US President Donald Trump ordered American forces to pull out of northeast Syria.
Turkey and Russia, President Bashar Al Assad’s main ally, agreed to a peace plan calling for Kurdish forces to pull back 30 kilometres from the Turkish border.
The idea of constitutional reform is part of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, adopted in December 2015, that defines the framework for Syria’s peace process.
Several rounds of peace talks in Geneva failed and experts are sceptical of the committee’s chances of success, especially as Russia will play an instrumental role in the outcome of the talks.
Samuel Ramani, a doctoral researcher in international relations at the University of Oxford, told The National that the idea of a Syrian-owned, Syrian-led process was an “illusion and not a reality”.
“The negotiations themselves may well be between the Syrian opposition, Syrian government and civil society, but international powers played a role in selecting who participated,” Mr Ramani said.
“It is not an organic union of Syrian factions.
“Even if the Syrian participants were to miraculously agree to peace, foreign stakeholders, particularly Russia and Turkey, still have tremendous sway over Idlib, for example.
Mona Yacoubian, a senior adviser at the US Institute of Peace, said Russia was seeking international legitimacy for the situation it had helped to create in the country.
“As the Assad regime extends its control over additional territory, Russia is now pivoting towards promoting a political settlement that legitimises the status quo – a Russian-backed Al Assad victory,” she said.
Ms Yacoubian said it would be challenging “to imagine how the committee can be truly Syrian-led and owned given the preponderance of external forces who are influencing events inside Syria.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian and Turkish equals, Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu, appeared together on the eve of the talks last week.
All three are significant players in the conflict.
“Lavrov’s visit to Geneva signals Moscow’s intent to influence the UN process, essentially to bend the process to the extent possible, in a direction that favours a Russian-defined political settlement,” Ms Yacoubian said.
The gathering in the Swiss city marks the first political agreement between the government and the opposition.