Experts to start negotiating new principles of Syrian constitution on Thursday - de Mistura
GENEVA. May 18 (Interfax) - The Syrian governmental delegation and the office of UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will begin to discuss Syria constitution matters at the expert level on Thursday, de Mistura said in a statement seen by Interfax.
"The Special Envoy is pleased to announce the start of the process of expert meetings between the Government delegation and the Office of the Special Envoy on issues and ideas on constitutional process, including consideration of living principles," de Mistura said.
"The delegation of the Government has at 12.00 announced to the Special Envoy its intention to have an early meeting today of their experts with those of the UN," the statement said.
"Earlier this week the Special Envoy informed the sides that he intended to establish a technical process to address constitutional and legal issues in the intra-Syrian talks," de Mistura's office said.
De Mistura took into account observations and moved "beyond the initial discussions triggered by an internal UN paper," it said.
De Mistura suggested earlier at the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva that "a technical consultative mechanism on constitutional and legal issues" be set up. The work plan was presented to Syrian delegations on the first day of the new round and was shared with Interfax.