Anas al-Abdeh, Chairman of the Syrian Opposition Negotiations Committee, and Hadi al-Bahra, Co-Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, called on Tuesday 13 April for a greater commitment from the international community, including the EU, to ensure that UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is finally implemented. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the start of the conflict, the EU again called for the full implementation of this resolution (see EUROPE 12678/2).
“This is the year of make or break”, Mr al-Abdeh said, calling on the international community and the EU to help formulate a new mechanism to implement the 2015 resolution. “More than 5 years after its unanimous adoption in the UN Security Council, not a single point of the resolution has been implemented”, he said at an hearing in the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, blaming the Syrian regime.
“We also need the involvement of the EU. Without this, it will not be possible to make a difference. Everyone must be involved, and a consensus must be reached with the Russians to implement this resolution”, added Mr al-Bahra. He recalled that this resolution called for a political process with a transitional government, a new constitution and free and fair elections. But according to him, Russia has gradually diluted the conversation to talk only about constitutional reform.
The Constitutional Committee, more than a year and a half after it began its work, has still not drafted a new constitution. “We did our best to register progress, but the regime did everything it could to make it fail”, explained Mr al-Abdeh. He added that the presidential election envisaged by the regime would not be legitimate and would “destroy any hope for a solution in Syria and for the implementation of the resolution”.
For Mr al-Bahra, “the regime’s objective is clear: to delay the Constitutional Committee so that Assad can win the illegitimate election in 2021, in clear violation of Resolution 2254”. “It is urgent that the EU, the US and the Allies take steps to ensure that the Constitutional Committee has a real chance of success, which cannot be achieved without agreement on methodology and a timetable. But this can only be done if there are sanctions for every act of obstruction by the regime in Geneva, targeted and intelligent sanctions”, in his estimation. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)