RPT: PREVIEW - Russia's Lavrov, UN Special Envoy For Syria Pedersen To Hold Consultations On Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen will hold consultations in Moscow on Monday, with the discussion expected to focus on the establishment of Syria's constitutional committee.

Pedersen is coming to Moscow following his first visit to Damascus on January 15-18, where he met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and later described the meeting as "constructive." The UN envoy also met with the opposition Syrian Negotiation Committee (SNC) in Riyadh, pledging to work with both Syrian parties to "build confidence and advance Geneva political process."

Lavrov said on Friday commenting on Pedersen's upcoming visit that Moscow was interested to hear the UN envoy's position on the Syrian constitutional committee, meant to draft the country's new constitution.

The agreement to establish the committee was reached at the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which was held in the Russian resort city of Sochi in January 2018. However, the parties involved have so far failed to agree on the composition of the body.

Following a November meeting on Syria at the Kazakh capital city of Astana, former UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura regretted the lack of progress in overcoming "the ten-month stalemate on the composition of the constitutional committee."

After a meeting with de Mistura in Geneva on December 18, the guarantor countries of the Astana peace process � Russia, Turkey and Iran � agreed to intensify efforts to make sure that the first meeting of the body would be held in early 2019.

Pedersen started his duty as the UN special envoy for Syria on January 9.