Russian envoy holds talks with Syrian opposition activist

Russian Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held talks with Qadri Jamil, a leader of the Syrian opposition ‘Moscow group" on Wednesday focusing on a goal of the soonest creation of the constitutional committee, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

They "discussed topical issues related to resolution to the Syria crisis, including a task of the soonest creation of the constitutional committee in line with decisions of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi," the ministry said.

On January 30, the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, agreed to set up a constitutional committee that will be tasked with drafting a new constitution for Syria. The committee was supposed to draw on a pool of 150 names (100 names from the government and internal moderate opposition and 50 names from external opposition).

On September 29, the so-called Small Group of countries on Syria (the United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United States and France) - led by the US - demanded from UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura that a meeting of the constitutional committee be brought forward and that he report to the UN Security Council by October 31. In the meantime, Damascus and Moscow stand against Western countries’ attempts to set out artificial deadlines for the comittee.