Syria, Iran discuss formation of Syrian constitutional committee

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday met with a visiting Iranian official over the formation of the Syrian constitutional committee, said the presidential media office, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

During the meeting, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Iranian Foreign Minister's special assistant for political affairs, informed Assad of the preparations for a meeting by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Geneva in the next few days, following the agreement on the final structure of the constitutional committee.

Ansari highlighted Iran's keenness to coordinate with the Syrian government which "showed great flexibility" in reaching the agreement to form the constitutional committee.

For his part, Assad hailed the efforts made by Iran for the formation of the constitutional committee despite the "big obstacles placed by the countries that support the terrorists."

The president also underlined the efforts of Russia and Iran to stop the interference of Western countries in the Syrian political track through supporting a political process led by the Syrians without any form of foreign intervention.

The formation of the constitutional committee was agreed upon during inter-Syrian talks, brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey, in Russia's Sochi in January.

The constitutional committee is expected to have 150 members from both the Syrian government and opposition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said he hopes the Syrian constitutional committee will start functioning by the end of 2018.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the list of members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee is ready and will be handed over to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura early next week.