The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, has called on Damascus to rejoin talks to revise the country’s constitution, warning political dialogue was headed “in the wrong direction.”
Pedersen since 2019 has been attempting to forge progress with a constitutional committee for Syria to amend the country’s constitution but has met with little success.
Talks in Geneva ceased in 2022 after Damascus ally Moscow objected to the meeting being held in Switzerland when the country imposed sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine and an alternative location was not agreed on.
Pedersen met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Sunday and repeated a proposal to hold talks in Geneva in late April, warning “An indefinite hiatus can only undermine the constitutional committee’s credibility and work.”
The Syrian opposition has sought to negotiate for a transitional phase with a view on President Bashar al-Assad’s departure but talks are now limited to revising the constitution.
UN-backed peace talks have failed to stop the Syrian conflict and recent years have mainly been overtaken by parallel discussions involving rebel-backer Turkey and Damascus allies Russia and Iran.
Syria’s civil war began 13 years ago, has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
