United Nations Special Envoy Geir Pedersen on Wednesday said he was waiting for the commissions of Bashar Assad’s regime and the Syrian opposition to resume talks and draft constitutional reforms amid violence in the country is underway.
Pedersen’s comments came as opposition activists reported that the regime’s shelling hit a fuel market in the northwest of the country, killing four people and causing a huge fire.
Pedersen spoke to reporters in the capital of Damascus after he met with Syrian officials, including Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, over the country’s long conflict.
The talks were last tenuous in Geneva in October when Pedersen declared the Syrian regime’s refusal to negotiate on revisions to the country’s constitution was a key reason for their failure.
“I must say that after my discussions today, I am more optimistic that he will be possible summon the seventh round of writing body of the constitutional committee, hopefully one day in March,” Pedersen said.
The Syrian conflict that began in March 2011 killed half a million people and moved half the country’s pre-war population of 23 millionsof which more of 5 millions mostly refugees in neighbor countries.
A 2012 UN Roadmap for Peace in Syria endorsed by representatives of the UN, the Arab League, the European Union, Turkey and the five permanent members of the Security Council call for writing of a new Constitution. It ends with UN-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate. Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015 unanimously approved the roadmap.
Pedersen said he would meet later on Wednesday with representative of the Ahmad Kuzbari regime, then contact the Council national Syrian opposition, after which “we can send out an invitation.”
The discussions in October followed a pause nine months in UN-led meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.
In a Russia-hosted Syrian Peace Conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached for former a committee of 150 members to draft a new Constitution. A smallest of 45 members body would do the actual drafting, comprising 15 members each of the government, opposition and civil society. This took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed.
In the north-west of the country, the bombardments of the Syrian regime hit a fuel market Wednesday, killing Four people injuring others and triggering a huge fire declared an opposition war monitor and paramedics.
the attack on the village of Tirmanin comes amid growing tensions near the last major opposition stronghold in northwestern Syria and two days after the regime’s bombings of a neighboring village killed six peopleincluding two children.
Syrian opposition civil defense group, also known as the White Helmets, said four people were killed in Wednesday afternoon attack.
The Syrian Observatory based in Britain for Human rights, also reported that four people were killed, including two brothers, and three others injured.
Idlib region is home at nearly 3 millions peopletwo thirds of displaced people from other parts of the country.
Almost 75% of the total population in Idlib, held by the opposition region depends on humanitarian aid to respond to their basic needs, since 1.6 million people continue to live in camps or informal settlements, the United Nations Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
For years, the Assad regime ignored the needs and safety of the syrian people only aiming for extra gains of territory and crush the opposition. To this end, the regime has for years have bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing displacement of almost half of that of the country population.
The situation for the people in Idleb worsened when the Russian-backed Assad regime launched a offensive on the province, causing the most grand one-temporal displacement in the history of the Syrian civil war and a huge humanitarian tragedy, according to the UN
Frequent shelling and shelling put almost 50% of health facilities out of a service, just like Syrian people need them the most amid the coronavirus pandemic. Life in overcrowded tent camps or even out in the open in safe areas near the Turkish border, many are struggling even meet basic Needs.
The Idlib de-escalation zone was forged as part of an agreement between Turkey and Russia. the area Has been subject of multiple stop-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies.
A fragile truce has been negotiated between Moscow and Ankara in March 2020 in response to months of combat by the Russian-backed regime. nearly a million people fled Bashar Assad’s regime offensive yet the regime still frequently carries out attacks on civilians, preventing most from returning to their homes and forcing them to stay in makeshift camps.