UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Friday that Damascus does not recognize the world body's role in forming a constitutional committee tasked to draft a new constitution for the war-torn country.
De Mistura noted that the final statement of inter-Syrian talks in Sochi in January that were brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey did put the United Nations in charge of the composition of the constitutional committee.
"Final agreement is to be reached in the UN-led Geneva process on the mandate and terms of reference, powers, rules of procedure, and selection criteria for the composition of the constitutional committee," de Mistura quoted the Russian version of the outcome as reading.
At his meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus on Wednesday, the Syrian official, however, did not recognize the outcome of the Sochi talks as circulated to the Security Council by Russia, said de Mistura.
"On the Sochi final statement, Muallem referred to another outcome rather than the one circulated by Russia to the Security Council. He said that it was possible for the government of Syria to take 'some elements' of the outcome circulated by Russia and 'reconcile' them with the government's preferred other 'outcome' -- and the key differences in this regard concerned, mainly, the role of the UN," de Mistural told the Security Council.
As regards the understanding reached between Russia and the United Nations before the Sochi event that the Sochi outcome would be brought to Geneva as a contribution to the intra-Syrian talks process under the auspices of the United Nations, Muallem did not view it as consistent with the principles of sovereignty and non-interference, said de Mistura.
"Basically, Minister Muallem did not accept a role for the UN in general in identifying or selecting the Middle Third list," said the UN envoy, referring to the list of civil society representatives to the committee.
Under the Sochi agreement, the constitutional committee is to be composed of representatives of the Syrian government, the opposition and civil society representatives -- each with 50 members.
De Mistura said he will be traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday to brief the presidents of France, Germany, Russia and Turkey at their summit meeting on Syria.
He said that he will use that occasion to remind these four important leaders that there is still a clear window of opportunity that needs to be urgently seized.
