What are the main obstacles facing the Syrian Constitutional Committee?

The Syrian Constitutional Committee is still standing still, after the failure of its fifth round to reach an agreement for a political transition in Syria, between the regime and the opposition.

The Constitutional Committee was formed based on Security Council Resolution No. 2254, which was adopted in December 2015, and its actual implementation has been postponed twice until 2018.

During the recent Astana talks, it appeared that the committee had not moved forward since its formation, amid accusations from the opposition of the regime of deliberately “evading and setting obstacles” in order to thwart it and not achieve any progress on its work or approach the amendment of the constitution.

Sources in the Syrian opposition indicated that the Syrian regime did not agree to the proposals of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, regarding setting a timetable for the committee’s work, and a new working mechanism.

According to the sources, Pedersen has not yet succeeded in setting a date for the start of the “sixth round” of the constitutional discussions, saying: “Most likely we are facing a new difficulty in the work of the Constitutional Committee.”

Questions are raised about the main obstacle that hinders the committee’s work and prevents it from progressing.

The writer and researcher Saad Wafai said that the main obstacle to the committee’s work is the regime because it did not want to take this step even before the stage of the Syrian revolution.

And Wafai explained to “Arabi 21” that “everything we were talking about in the opposition, before the revolution, was four articles in the constitution, which took the lives of many Syrians and suffered torture because of them, but the regime did not accept change.”

He added: “The regime conducted rounds called the National Dialogue, which it did, and did not accept any proposals to amend the constitution. On that day, Walid al-Moallem said we will drown them in details so that they do not make any change. What is required is a new social contract for the Syrians, but the regime cannot write His end is in his hand by approving any amendment to the constitution.”