Still early for constitutional draft in Syria: Turkish official

Turkey is not aware of a constitutional draft handed over to Syrian officials from a Russian delegation in Astana, a Foreign Ministry official has said, noting that the stages of the political transitional process have been outlined by U.N. Security Council. 

"No draft constitution was presented to us. I don't know if any was submitted to the opposition," a senior foreign ministry official familiar with the Astana talks told Hürriyet Daily News.

Guarantor countries decided to restrict the framework of Astana talks merely to just the cease-fire, the official said, noting that they would be able to pave the way for a political process later. The U.N. resolution suggests first establishing a transitional body and then drafting a constitution. 

Russia presented a proposal on a new constitution for conflict-torn Syria during a meeting with the chief representative of the rebel factions, Mohammed Alloush, in the Kazakh capital Astana. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Jan. 25 that the blueprint written by Russian experts was based on opinions from the Syrian government, opposition and regional powers.

Alexander Lavrentiev, who led his country's delegation at the talks, on Jan. 24 said that Russia had presented the rebels with the draft text of the constitution "to help speed up this process and give it some more impetus."

"In no way do we want to interfere in the drafting and adopting of the basic law of the constitution of the country. We believe that the Syrian people must lead this process," Lavrentiev said. 

Syria's opposition reportedly rejected the proposal warning Kremlin against repeating the mistake made by the George W. Bush administration when U.S. overthrew Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein.
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