Hadi al-Bahra, co-chairman of the Syrian Constitutional Committee representing the opposition, said that holding a new round of meetings of the Constitutional Committee depends on “the commitment of the parties to the methodology of action.”
Bahra stressed that the agenda for the next round has been set since the previous session of the meetings. The basic principles of the Constitution, which represents its first chapter, should be discussed.
Since last March, a new round of talks by the Syrian Constitutional Commission has been under preparation, but so far no specific date has been agreed on for the sixth round.
The Constitutional Committee ended its last tour without formulating the basic principles of its objectives. These objectives help to determine the mechanism for drafting a new constitution for Syria -under UN Resolution 2254- to form a transitional governing body and to organize new elections.
The committee consists of three delegations (opposition, regime, and civil society). The opposition delegation adhered to the agenda framework for the talks in the last round, while the Syrian regime delegation continued to try to distract the agenda. They tried talking about previous agreements such as the Adana Agreement, or the flag and national anthem, or prolonging interventions to occupy the largest amount of time.
The UN envoy described the fifth round of the commission’s work, which ended on January 29, as a missed and disappointing opportunity, noting that there is no future action plan for Syria until now.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.