Russia, Turkey, Iran to present Syrian committee lineup

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

Russia, Turkey and Iran will present a list of candidates for the Syrian Constitutional Committee to the UN next week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

The document is ready and will be presented to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura next week, Lavrov said, speaking at a news conference in Baku, Azerbaijan after the ministerial meeting of the Black Sea Economic Council (BSEC).

Lavrov said he discussed the issue with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of Friday's BSEC talks and with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif over the phone last night.

"We have already an understanding that the list on which the government of Syria and opposition, with assistance of Russia, Turkey and Iran worked is almost ready. We will be ready to present this list to UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura on behalf of the Syrian parties at the beginning of next week," he said.

During the Syrian peace conference in late January in Sochi, the formation of a committee to develop recommendations to amend the Syrian constitution was agreed upon.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on protesters with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.