Hope for Syria: Constitution Committee will be meeting

After almost eight years of civil war in Syria, there is hope for a peace process. Beginning in 2019, a constituent Assembly is to come together. The role of the Syrian Kurds have not yet been determined.

In Syria, a movement in the political process. At the beginning of next year to days in Geneva for the first time, the Constitution Committee, informed the foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey, after consultations with UN mediator Staffan de Mistura. The Minister had presented "the positive results of its consultations with the Syrian parties about the composition of the Committee," it said in its statement.

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura

The Committee had been agreed in January at a Meeting in the Russian resort of Sochi. He should pave the way to a political solution to the conflict. Busy the body is to be with 50 representatives of the government and the Opposition, as well as a further 50 independent members, as determined by the United Nations. Especially the last group, there had been a violent quarrel.

role of the Syrian Kurds

As Syria's Kurds may be involved in the Constitution Committee, also. The Kurdish militia YPG controlled large areas in the North and East of the country. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced last week a new Offensive against the YPG. The Turkey looks in the militia, an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdish workers ' party PKK and fight them.

For the United States, in turn, is the YPG in Syria, the most important ally in the fight against the terrorist militia "Islamic state" (IS). The US-led international coalition supported them from the air. The US army has in Syria's own troops.

a number of cities in Syria have been destroyed. This is a picture of the ruins of Daraa.

UN mediator optimistic

Mistura in advance, however, optimistic that the efforts will bear fruit. "In a Constitution for example, it is the Power of the President, it could and should be a matter of how elections are held and the distribution of power," he said. The panel has the support of all major powers.

In the case of a four-man summit at the end of October, meeting in Istanbul, the heads of state and heads of government of Turkey, Russia, Germany and France declared that it should start in this year.

rebels, especially in Idlib

The Syrian civil war in March 2011 with protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad erupted. Whose troops acted with violence against the protesters. In the past few months, the army and its allies were able to bring strategically important areas under their control. You now control the largest part of the country, including all major cities.

The rebels in the Idlib province, remains still to be found in the North-West of Syria. All diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict had failed in the past few years.

agreement on a constitutional Committee and the Syria envoy says goodbye
Dietrich, Karl Mäurer, ARD Zürich
18.12.2018 18:45 PM

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