The logo of the Syrian Higher Negotiation Council (SHNC)
The Syrian opposition has prepared a list containing its candidates for the committee tasked with discussing the current constitution of Syria, the Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Enab Baladi reported on June 16.
According to Enab Baladi report, the opposition list consists of one hundred names, half of which were picked by the Syrian Higher Negotiation Council (SHNC), while the other half was picked by the Russian-backed Moscow Platform, the Saudi-backed Syria’s Tomorrow Movement and the independent Tayar Qamah.
Last month, the Syria Foreign Ministry handed a list of its representatives for the constitutional committee to Russian and Iranian ambassadors in Damascus, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The Syrian opposition is yet to hand its list to any official side due to internal disagreements, according to Enab Baladi. While the SHNC insists that the list should be handed over to Turkey, the other sides believe that the list should be handed over to the U.N. which is tasked with organizing the constitutional committee.
The establishment of the constitutional committee was one of the main results of the Syrian National Dialogue Conference held in January.
Syrian opposition claims that the committee is tasked with writing a new constitution for Syria. However, the Damascus government insists that the committee is only allowed to modify the current constitution, which was adopted in 2012.
These huge disagreements between the Damascus government and the Syrian opposition and within the ranks of the opposition itself will likely lead to the failure of the constitutional committee, especially that the committee is a part of Geneva process, which is heavily influenced by the US.
