A new round of talks involving the Syrian Constitutional Committee seeking a solution to the ongoing 11-year war in the country will resume for five days from March 21 in Geneva, the office of the special United Nations envoy on Syria announced Friday.
The last such talks, which involved both the regime 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 the U.N. European headquarters at the Palais des Nations.
"The Constitutional Committee will be meeting in closed sessions and off-site," the statement said.
Pedersen told the U.N. 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 devices) and security incidents across front lines 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.
When the last round of talks ended on Oct. 22 last year, Pedersen said: "Today's talks were a huge disappointment."
"We didn't achieve what we hoped to achieve. I think we lacked a proper understanding of how to move that process forward. So, in the end, it was the government delegation that decided not to present any new text," he added.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for a political solution to the civil war in Syria that began 11 years ago and has devastated the country and its people.
The civil war began when the Bashar Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and millions more displaced, according to U.N. estimates.
"We cannot fail the Syrian people. The conflict must cease. International humanitarian law must be respected," Guterres said in a statement. "I call on all parties to meaningfully engage in the U.N.-facilitated political process and appeal for further support to scale up the humanitarian response. We must choose peace."
Guterres said the past 11 years of brutal conflict have exacted an unconscionable human cost, and "millions of internally displaced and refugees struggle to survive in the most difficult circumstances."
But, he argued, "we must not lose hope" and move beyond "rhetorical commitments" to peace and do all that is necessary to reach a negotiated political solution in line with Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015). "This is the path to a solution that meets the aspirations of all Syrians," he said.
The U.N. chief called for ensuring greater humanitarian access to address the needs of people throughout the country. "Cross-line and cross-border deliveries are essential to reach millions of people in need," he said.
Guterres also urged "collective action" to end the practice of arbitrary detention and forcible disappearance of tens of thousands of people. "It is time to respond to the urgent calls of families across Syria who are seeking to clarify the fate and whereabouts of their missing loved ones," he said. "As families seek truth for their loved ones, thousands continue to languish in prisons in unimaginable conditions."
The Constitutional Committee was created in September 2019 and first convened a month later.
Security Council Resolution 2254 was unanimously adopted on Dec. 18, 2015. It called for a cease-fire and political settlement in Syria. The resolution demanded that all parties immediately cease any attacks against civilian targets, urged all member states to support efforts to achieve a cease-fire and requested the U.N. convene the parties to engage in formal negotiations in early January 2016. The resolution also underlined that free and fair elections will be held under U.N. supervision. The political transition will be Syrian-led.
The U.N. Resolution 2254 was invoked by Iran, Russia and Turkey as the legal basis for the political process required to solve the Syrian conflict, at the first round of the Astana Talks in January 2017. The first meeting of the Astana process was in Turkey in January 2017 to facilitate U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and aiming to crush the opposition. The regime has for years bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country's population.
The situation of the people in Idlib worsened when the Assad regime launched an offensive on the province, causing the largest one-time displacement in the history of the Syrian civil war and a huge humanitarian tragedy, according to the U.N.
The Idlib de-escalation zone was forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies.
