UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and representatives from the guarantor states of the cessation of hostilities in Syria (Russia, Iran and Turkey) may hold separate talks on the creation of the Syrian constitutional commission in Sochi on July 30-31, parallel to the Astana-format negotiations, a source at the talks told Sputnik.
"There will possibly be separate talks on the constitutional commission in Sochi. But it will be outside the Astana framework. It's mostly because of logistical reasons. Such a meeting was supposed to happen in Geneva soon, but since all the participants are here now, it may be more convenient," the source said.
Indeed, Vitaly Naumkin, the unofficial Russian adviser to de Mistura and leading expert on the issue of the Syrian constitutional commission, has arrived in Sochi, although he has never before participated in the Astana-format negotiations, which have mostly focused on the ceasefire issue.
The Russian delegation is led by Special Presidential Representative for the Syrian Settlement Alexander Lavrentyev and also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin.
Last month, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura urged the Security Council to act and to resolve the recent military escalation in the south-west of Syria: “We do urge this council and all interested parties to help in finding an arrangement or a solution, in the south-west that will spare civilian suffering and large movements of displaced people and reduce potential tensions, so we do not see once again, seven years afterwards, perhaps when we are getting closer and closer to the end of this conflict, a repetition of what we saw sadly in Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta.
In June, representatives of the three guarantors went to Geneva to have focused discussions with de Mistura for the first time on creating the constitutional commission.
The Syrian government's delegation, led by the country's permanent representative to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, has arrived in Russia's Sochi to participate in the 10th high-level meeting of the guarantor states for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Delegations representing other sides to the talks — Russia, Turkey, Iran, the United Nations and the Syrian opposition — are already in the city, ready to start the negotiations.
The two-day Astana-10 talks will start later today. Monday is going to see a marathon of closed-door bilateral meetings and a session of the working group on detainees.
