The United Nations Security Council has held a meeting on Syria with a focus on a UN-backed constitutional body for the crisis-hit country, days after the three mediators of a peace process in Syria reached a set of agreements in Geneva, Austria, on the issue.
Addressing the Security Council session on Thursday, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said his country is open to any initiative that could help it put an end to the ongoing crisis.
Noting that Syria is ready to actively participate in any genuine effort to reach a political solution for the country’s crisis, Jaafari added that such a solution must make way for Syrians alone to decide their future without any foreign intervention.
Syria’s UN envoy said the international community has to help the country end the terrorist war and eliminate the remnants of the terrorist organizations, emphasizing that Syrian people were writing the last chapter of their fight against terrorism.
Slamming the Western states for their support for terrorist groups in Syria, Jaafari stated that although Western countries claimed to be committed to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, they committed acts of aggression against the country and attacked parts of its territories.
Before Jaafri’s remarks, the outgoing UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, briefed the Security Council session on the outcome of the Geneva talks two days earlier, which were attended by top diplomats of Iran, Russia and Turkey.
“We have nearly completed the work of putting in place a constitutional committee to draft a constitutional reform, as a contribution to the political process — but there is an extra mile to go,” the UN diplomat said.
De Mistura said the committee would not be in place by year’s end as was hoped.
“I deeply regret what has not been achieved, and I am sorry more was not possible,” he added, reporting issues with a list of participants proposed by the government in Damascus.
The 15-nation UN body convened two days after Iran, Russia and Turkey agreed during the negotiations in Geneva to step up efforts aimed at convening the first session of the UN-sponsored Syrian Constitutional Committee early next year.
