DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2019) Damascus has granted its consent to the agreed composition of the Syrian Constitutional Committee back in July, but the United Nations decided to announce its long-anticipated creation only in mid-September, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday.
On Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the committee tasked with reviewing the Syrian constitution had finally been created in full. Earlier, Muallem announced that the inaugural meeting of the 150-member committee - which has equal representation of the Syrian government, opposition and civil society - was tentatively set for October 30.
In an interview with the Syria tv channel, Muallem noted that it took 18 months to form the committee due to an "external pressure" exerted on the UN special envoy for Syria. Incumbent Geir Pedersen succeeded Staffan de Mistura as UN special envoy in January.
"We reached an agreement on the Names of committee members - in an extended and smaller formats - as well as the rules governing the work of the committee two and a half months ago, before the latest visit of the UN special envoy," the minister said.
According to Muallem, it was the United Nations that decided to announce that the committee had been formed only after Pedersen's visit to Damascus.
Many of countries that "masterminded a plot" against Syria, he says, sought to hinder the committee's creation.
The minister stressed that the United Nations would exclusively facilitate a dialogue, without interfering in the discussions run in the committee.
