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Syrian opposition, UN envoy discuss elections, constitution in Geneva

December 14, 2017 at 4:48 am

UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura holds a joint press conference after a session within the fourth round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva on 23 February 2017 [Mustafa Yalçın / Anadolu Agency

The Syrian opposition delegation to the Geneva-eight talks said, Wednesday, it has discussed elections with UN Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, and his team.

“Today’s session was richer and deeper than yesterday’s session. Yesterday, the constitutional procedures were discussed. Today, the electoral procedures were discussed in depth” opposition spokesman, Yahya Aridi told reporters at the UN headquarters in Geneva.

“At the beginning of the meeting,  the head of the delegation, Nasr Hariri made remarks on yesterday’s session including the United Nations proposal regarding on the constitution file” Aridi said, explaining that the opposition has reservations on the United Nations proposal on the constitution.

Discussing these issues is part of and a pillar of political transition

he said.

Remarking on the last round of talks which will be held on Thursday, Aridi said the topics will include governance, or political transition where both the opposition team and the UN team will present their ideas on the issues.

According to the Geneva meetings agenda which was approved in the previous rounds, four files will be discussed: transitional government, constitution, elections and the fight against terrorism.

Read More: 3 Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers killed in Syria

The first round of Geneva-eight talks started on 28 November and lasted four days before they stopped for several days after the regime delegation left for Damascus. The talks resumed last week.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Syrian opposition delegation to the Geneva-eight, Ahmed Ramadan announced that the Syrian regime delegation has refused to enter into direct negotiations with the opposition and has set preconditions for negotiations.