Russia, Turkey, Iran to promote Syria congress' results

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA

Moscow, Ankara and Tehran will do their best to promote the results of a conference aimed at ending years of war in Syria and facilitating the peace process.

"The initiators of the congress, the three guarantor countries - Russia, Iran and Turkey. We confirmed that we will do our best to promote the results of the congress," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Tuesday after the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian city of Sochi, according to a statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

Lavrov's remarks came after the parties at the congress agreed Tuesday to form a constitutional committee comprising the Syrian regime along with a widely represented opposition delegation for the drafting of constitutional reform as a contribution to the political settlement under UN auspices in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254.

He said the three countries will help UN Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura and his team in talks with Syrians.

The parties at the congress appealed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to assign de Mistura to assist in the constitutional committee’s work in Geneva.

"In the very near future, we will expect specific considerations on his part," Lavrov said.

De Mistura welcomed the proposal on forming a constitutional committee.

"I will be indicating as soon as possible -- because Syria cannot wait -- how I intend to proceed on my mandated task under Resolution 2254, which means in practice setting in Geneva a schedule and process for constitution drafting. This way, a constitutional committee can really and concretely be established and begin to work," he said after the congress.