Russia not to insist that its suggestions regarding new Syrian constitution be used - newspaper
MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Moscow will not insist that its suggestions regarding the new Syrian constitution be necessarily used, the newspaper Izvestia said on Thursday.
"Representatives of Damascus and the opposition have expressed readiness to send their delegates to Astana for elaborating a new Syrian constitution. The debates will be conducted at working groups, the formation of which has been proposed by Russia. Yet far from all conflicting sides are ready to proceed from Moscow's suggestions about the fundamental law. Izvestia was told at the Federation Council that no one would be insisting that the groundwork laid by Russia be necessarily used," it said.
"The sole purpose of the suggestions regarding the fundamental law, which have been presented by Moscow, is to trigger debates," Federation Council international affairs committee head Andrei Klimov told the newspaper.
"We have compiled the ideas put forward by parties to the Syria conflict in recent years. Russia is not going to push for the use of its text, especially as it definitively says that the future of Syria shall be decided by the Syrian people. This is our principled stance. Representatives of the authorities and the opposition are free to borrow any blocks of our proposals or to write the constitution on their own," Klimov said.
Groups representing the Syrian government and the opposition are expected to work in Astana, the newspaper quoted head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff's Main Operative Department Sergei Rudskoi as saying. "A constitutional commission will be formed at some point on this basis to complete the elaboration of the Syrian fundamental law and to determine a mechanism of its approval," Rudskoi said, adding that the Russian idea had gained Turkey's and Iran's support.
Damascus is ready for dialogue on a new constitution, Syrian parliamentary international affairs committee member Sadji Taama of the ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party told Izvestia. "We see the Russian ideas not as a draft constitution but as a set of proposals, and we are not going to reject them," he said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Ilah Fahd, secretary-general of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces included in the Riyadh Group, said that the external opposition supported debates on a new constitution but did not accept the Russian proposals, arguing that the Syrian people should elaborate the document without any suggestions made from abroad.
Ilian Masaad, head of the Hmeimim group representing the patriotic opposition, insisted that the Russian ideas should be laid in the foundation of a future Syrian constitution. "We deem the Russian draft to be the starting point, as it is aimed at preserving Syria's territorial integrity," Masaad said.
The next round of the Astana talks has been scheduled for February 15-16.