Syrian Constitution Should Not Be Discussed During Geneva Talks - HNC

The Syrian constitution should not be discussed during the ongoing Geneva talks, a representative of the Syrian armed opposition, member of HNC negotiators' team Bashar Zoubi told Sputnik.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — On Friday, a source told Sputnik that UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura suggested creating three working groups for the discussion of each of the key issues of the current round of Geneva talks — governance, constitution and elections.

"The constitution is not in the sphere of government's or opposition's responsibility. It is the right of the Syrian people," Zoubi said answering a question on whether or not he believed it was possible to create a group of government and opposition representatives to discuss the constitution.

"If somebody from the opposition or some people from the government or other countries want to impose constitution on the Syrian people, then where is the democracy and freedom, which we are talking about?" he asked rhetorically.

Earlier, a draft Syrian constitution, prepared by Russian experts, was presented to the Syrian opposition during the settlement talks in the capital of Kazakhstan.

Head of the Russian delegation Alexander Lavrentyev underlined that Russia is not interfering in the consideration of the constitution but is presenting the draft to the opposition simply in order to accelerate the process.

Later, Sputnik obtained the full text of the Syrian constitution drafted by Russia.