U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura concluded a series of discussions with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, regarding an internationally aspired formation of a new Syrian constitutional committee. While the United Nations envoy described his meetings as “frank and intense,” he stopped short of giving additional details about the outcome of meetings with Syria’s top diplomat, who also serves as the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister. de Mistura stated, “We had a long meeting with Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, (also the) Deputy Prime Minister. And during this meeting, we had a very frank and very intense exchange of opinion concerning the constitutional committee and political process in general. I hope you will forgive me if I cannot elaborate on the outcome, because I’m due to report to the secretary-general and to the security council the outcome.” Earlier in the day, al-Muallem asserted that the Syrian constitution is a sovereign matter which should be decided without foreign interference. To that end, the Syrian government has positively dealt with the process of forming a constitutional committee to discuss Syria’s future constitution. While the United Nations demands that a constitutional committee include “150 members, equally divided into three groups,” one chosen by the government, the second by the opposition and the third by de Mistura himself; the Assad regime had voiced its objections on several occasions regarding a list by United Nations.
