Syrian constitution to become a key aspect at Astana Talks

According to a source close to Astana talks, the creation of Syrian constitution may become a key aspect at the upcoming round of the Syrian talks in the capital of Kazakhstan. The third round of Syrian talks is scheduled on March 14-15.

It should be mentioned that during the past round of talks the sides have agreed to establish a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire regime in Syria with the participation of Iran, Russia and Turkey. As we can observe, the ceasefire is being respected. It is quite difficult to deny this fact as the number of settlements which have joined ceasefire regime has reached 1340 and the number of the militant's attacks has significantly decreased.

Now that the ceasefire mechanism has been created in Astana, it's high time to resolve the political issues, namely the issue of the future Syrian constitution.

The process of adopting new constitution is quite long standing and may last from several months to several years. So, if the sides are really interested in a speedy settlement of the Syrian crisis, they should initiate a meaningful dialogue right now. This would contribute to the political settlement of the Syrian crisis, which has been paralyzing the country since 2011.

The Russian side has suggested discussing the new Syrian constitution at the first round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana in the hope to make progress in the issues related to the political settlement of the Syrian crisis within the framework of the Astana process. Unfortunately, this initiative failed to get support of the Syrian armed opposition which surprisingly decided to sabotage the next Astana meeting.   

This creates an impression that the representatives of the Syrian opposition are pointing out alleged ceasefire violations instead of looking for areas of mutual interest with the Syrian government and discussing the draft Syrian constitution. Due to the absence of the Syrian opposition at the Astana talks the possibility of an early peace settlement is getting further away and the political issues will only be discussed at Geneva-5.


[Written by Firas Samuri]



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