De Mistura To Visit Syria On Wednesday To Discuss Constitutional Committee Formation

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th October, 2018) UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is set to visit Syria on Wednesday, with the work on formation of a Syrian constitutional committee expected to top the agenda.

During the visit, de Mistura will likely hold talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

The visit comes after de Mistura, who has been working as special envoy for the crisis-torn country since 2014, announced earlier in October that he would quit his post in the last week of November for personal reasons. On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was discussing the appointment of a new UN special envoy for Syria with Damascus.

The role of the UN special envoy for Syria is critical as the official is in charge of forming the body that is tasked with rewriting the Syrian main law. The creation of the Syrian constitutional committee was agreed upon during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian resort city of Sochi in late January. Earlier, de Mistura noted that he saw no reasons preventing the potential start of the committee's work in November.