December 17, 2024
A delegation from the Syrian Negotiating Commission held a meeting yesterday, Monday, with the Special UN Envoy to Syria, Mr. Geir Pedersen, and his team at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and discussed the latest current developments in the Syrian arena at all levels.

At the start of the meeting, the SNC’s delegation, which included a number of members of the Commission, congratulated the Syrian people for their wonderful victories that came as a result of a long struggle throughout the 14 years of the revolution, and the struggles of the Syrian opposition throughout the decades that preceded the revolution as well, during which the Syrian people made many sacrifices and shed blood and lives for the sake of their freedom and liberation from tyranny and oppression to reach a free and dignified homeland.

The delegation of the Commission stressed the necessity of providing urgent humanitarian and relief aid to the Syrians after the Syrian regime destroyed the state and looted its economy and infrastructure. It also stressed the importance of proceeding with the files of accountability, questioning and transitional justice, and providing justice to all those who were subjected to violations due to the regime’s war, violence and criminality, explaining that transitional justice is not limited to holding the symbols of the Syrian regime accountable and prosecuting them, but rather includes a set of measures that lead to ensuring that the crimes committed by the regime, including war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria, are not repeated. The delegation of the Commission spoke about the current Syrian situation, on the security and political levels, and discussed the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution No. 2254, in terms of its inclusion of a good and implementable roadmap that is accepted by all Syrian parties without the presence of the defunct regime in any form. He stressed that the implementation of Resolution 2254 is taking place without the presence of the regime due to its demise, meaning that there is no party capable of obstructing its implementation, and the matter is limited to the components of the revolutionary forces that represent the political, civil and military parties of the components of the Syrian people and all its spectrums, and it is in the interest of the Syrian people and the revolutionary forces to accomplish it in the shortest possible time, through a political process owned and led by the Syrians, and through a Syrian dialogue that is not controlled by the United Nations but rather facilitates and provides advisory services to it.

The delegation expressed its hope and desire that the international envoy to Syria would facilitate the dialogue between all Syrian parties, to begin forming the transitional participatory governing body, which ensures the preparation of a safe and neutral environment, and from which a committee including legal experts and experts would emerge in order to draft a new modern constitution for Syria, leading to the call for free and fair elections under the supervision of the United Nations.

For his part, the UN envoy to Syria briefed the delegation on the series of meetings he had held and would hold in Damascus, and many ideas were exchanged on ways to advance the political process according to the rules, mechanisms for forming the transitional body, and ways to activate dialogue between the Syrian parties. Pedersen briefed them on the results of the Aqaba international meeting on Syria held on December 14, stressing the need for a comprehensive and credible political transition led and owned by Syria and based on the principles contained in Security Council Resolution 2254. He also stressed the United Nations’ intention to provide all assistance to the Syrian people.