Turkish FM meets UN chief in New York

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met Friday with the UN chief here as the international body gathered to kick off the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, Anadolu Agency reports.

Cavusoglu told reporters he had a “useful” meeting with Antonio Guterres and discussed a range of issues, including Syria and the constitutional committee for the war-torn country.

The meeting was closed to the media.

He said UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen will go to Damascus, Syria and meet with the regime Monday.

“After this meeting, we can say when we will announce the constitutional committee,” Cavusoglu said.

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On Wednesday, Guterres said an agreement had been reached on the formation of a committee to draft a new Constitution for Syria.

Pedersen was “doing the final work with the parties in relation to the terms of reference, and we hope that this will be very soon concluded,” he said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.