On Monday 24 August, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) welcomed the first meeting of the select committee of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic as “positive news”.
In a statement, she said: “The European Union encourages all the parties to seriously engage in good faith on the substance in order to pursue concrete results”. According to the spokesperson, the Constitutional Committee is a “door opener” for creating the conditions for a political solution to the Syria conflict, “although it is not in itself a political solution”.
The EEAS emphasised that constructive diplomacy by all international stakeholders on all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is needed to reach a sustainable political solution.
The EU also reiterated its support for Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy, in his “tireless” efforts to pursue a political solution in Syria.
The UN hopes that the meeting, which began on Monday 24 August and has brought together 45 people chosen in equal numbers by the Syrian regime, the opposition and the UN, might lead to “substantive” discussions over the course of the week. Monday evening, the discovery of three cases of Covid-19 among delegates participating in the discussions forced the UN to suspend the meeting, AFP reported. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)