Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA- Head of the national delegation to meetings of the Committee of Discussing the Constitution in Geneva, Dr. Ahmad al-Kizbari reaffirmed that the Committee of Discussing the Constitution is a Syrian committee and no one has the right to interfere in its work.
Interviewed by the Syrian TV channel on Wednesday evening, al-Kizbari clarified that the national delegation will participate in the fifth round of the committee’s meetings because it wants to achieve a progress in its work, and not to block it as the other participating party claims.
He considered that the tackling the constitutional principles entails a solid basis agreed upon with the other party on the national principles.
Al-Kizbari noted that the work of the committee focuses on discussing the constitutional reform which can be accomplished through amending some of the articles of the current constitution and at the same time it should be open to drafting a new constitution that would achieve all the goals of the Syrian state and would preserve the national principled stances, and the most important thing is that it should be agreed upon by the Syrian people.
He added that there is a complete discrepancy between the other parties participating in the meetings of the Committee of Discussing the Constitution as they don’t have a main title that unite them.
Al-Kizbari reminded that when the national delegation in the two previous rounds proposed some of the identifiers of the national identity such as the name of the state, the official language and the belonging and loyalty to the homeland and defending it, and the full sense of belonging to the Syrian national territory, in addition to not offending the national symbols such as the flag and the anthem, the other party rejected them by majority.
Al-Kizbari indicated that the third and the fourth rounds were for discussing the national bases and principles and not the constitutional ones which will be the title of the fifth round that will be held in the second half of next January, adding that there is no agreement on any item within the national principles proposed by the other party.
Head of the delegation pointed out that in the final day of the last session of the meetings of the Committee of Discussing the Constitution, head of the other participating delegation violated the code of conduct and the measures, therefore, some members of the national delegation objected that violation and, “we obtained guarantees from the facilitator, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen not to repeat this provocation in the upcoming rounds.”
Al-Kizbari said that during the two previous rounds, the national delegation proposed a paper that contains about eight principles including the file of the return of refugees, rejecting any separatist scheme for the Syrian territory, in addition to the issue of the humanitarian file and the urgent necessity to address this issue because it affects all the Syrians, as well as lifting the siege and the unilateral coercive measures imposed by some states on the Syrian people, “but we haven’t found any response from the other party.”
Ruaa al-Jazaeri
