GENEVA (Dispatches) – The office of the special UN envoy on Syria said on Friday that a new round of talks involving the Constitutional Committee seeking a solution to the ongoing 11-year foreign-backed war in the country will resume in Geneva for five days from March 21.
The last such talks, which involved both the government and the opposition, ended in Geneva on Oct. 22, 2021 and were described as a “disappointment” by the Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen at the time.
The special envoy’s office said that the seventh round of the Constitutional Committee Small Body will meet behind closed doors in Geneva, but not at UN European headquarters at the Palais des Nations.
“The Constitutional Committee will be meeting in closed sessions and off-site,” said the statement.
Pedersen told the UN Security Council in New York on Feb. 25: “Militarily, front lines remain unshifted, but we still see all signs of an ongoing hot conflict.
“Any of a number of flashpoints could ignite a broader conflagration. We continue to see mutual shelling, skirmishes, IEDs (improvised explosive device), and security incidents across frontlines in the northwest, the northeast, and the southwest.”
“It is plain that there is a stalemate, that there is acute suffering, and that a political solution is the only way out. This requires a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political process, which must be supported by constructive international diplomacy – however hard that is, and especially right now,” he added.
In another development regarding the country, Syria’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations has voiced regret over the politicization of his country’s chemical file by certain countries, stating that the practice comes as criminal acts by terrorist groups across Syria are being blatantly ignored.
“On March 19th, 2013, terrorist groups fired a shell laced with toxic chemicals on the city of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, claiming the lives of 25 people, mostly members of the Syrian Arab Army. Another 110 people suffered breathing difficulties,” Qusay al-Dahhak said at a session of the UN Security Council on Thursday.
He added, “Syria called on the former UN secretary-general (Ban Ki-moon) at the time to form an independent technical mission to investigate the incident. Unfortunately, it took several months for the mission to be formed. Neither have its members visited the site of the incident, nor has any investigation been conducted up until now.”
Dahhak pointed to the Khan al-Assal chemical attack as “a clear example of certain countries’ attempts to conceal the crimes being committed by terrorist organizations, and the scope of manipulation and politicization concerning the so-called Syrian chemical file.”
The diplomat highlighted that Syria voluntarily joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) on October 14, 2013, eliminated its stockpile of chemical warfare, destroyed its production facilities, and remains interested to address the lingering issues through cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to close the file permanently.
Dahhak emphasized that the OPCW would not successfully accomplish its missions if it bows to external pressure and opts to politicize the work of its affiliated agencies.