UN’s Guterres says deal reached on committee for new Syria constitution

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced that a long-sought agreement has been reached on the composition of a committee to draft a new constitution for Syria.

The UN chief told reporters on Wednesday that UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen “is doing the final work with the parties in relation to the terms of reference, and we hope that this will be very soon concluded.”

Guterres expressed hope that formation of the constitutional committee “will be a very important step in creating the conditions for a political solution for this tragic conflict,” AP said.

At a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. There was early agreement on 50-member lists from the Syrian government and the opposition. It has taken nearly 20 months to agree on the list the UN was authorized to put together representing experts, independents, tribal leaders and women.