Peter Kenny
21 March 2022•Update: 21 March 2022
GENEVA
A new round of talks involving the Constitutional Committee seeking a solution to the ongoing 11-year war in Syria started in Geneva on Monday as the opposition group presented details on the "basics of governance."
The five days in the seventh round of talks are scheduled to end Friday and involve both the regime and the opposition, hosted at Geneva's Intercontinental Hotel instead of at the Palais des Nations, the European headquarter of the UN.
Two sessions were held in the presence of UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and the two co-chairs, one from the Syrian regime and one from the opposition.
The meetings were attended by members of the "Small Group" responsible for writing the new constitution.
This group consists of 15 representatives each from the regime of Bashar al-Assad, NGOs, and the Syrian opposition, and ended after eight hours.
According to information obtained by Anadolu Agency, the opposition presented "basics of governance" on the draft constitution on the first day.
The group representing the Assad regime reportedly maintained its uncompromising attitude from the six previous rounds of talks.
At a press conference at the UN in Geneva on Sunday, Pedersen said that the seventh round would focus on the basics of governance, state identity, state symbols, and the structure and functions of public authorities.
A separate item would be discussed on each of the first four days of the talks.
Pedersen said on Sunday he did not want to predict the outcome of the new round after the last round in October ended in "disappointment."
Not pre-judging talks
"It is now close to two-and-a-half years since we had the first meeting. I will not pre-judge the outcome of this session," Pedersen told journalists.
The civil war began in March 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN estimates, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced.
