Tabnak – As battles continue between the Syrian army and armed groups in different parts of Syria, talks of ¬necessary provisions for political transition in the country are also underway. In this vein, the Syrian government has been in touch with Russia to prepare the ground for forming the constitutional committee.
In the military sphere, Syrian forces on Friday responded to an infiltration attack by terrorists from several directions towards al-Hamamiyat area in Hama, destroying several armored vehicles and vehicles belonging to them, SANA reported.
Terrorists’ positions in the areas of Ariha and Ma’aret al-Nouman in Idlib were also pounded by the troops. During the counterattack, dozens of the militants lost their lives and many others fled the battlefield, the report added.
The areas where the clashes broke out are located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15. However, al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists said they refuse to either leave the buffer zone or hand over their weapons.
Meanwhile and in the political sphere, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has discussed with two Russian diplomats the formation of a constitutional committee as the war against the foreign-backed terrorists is winding down in the Arab country.
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that the meeting focused on “the continuous efforts to make progress on the political track, especially in forming a committee for discussing the Constitution and the mechanisms and procedures of its work.”
President Assad, Lavrentiev and Vershinin also agreed “to continue working extensively and coordinating on the next steps” and stressed the importance of not allowing certain countries to hinder the process, the report said. The discussions, it added, also dealt with the latest developments in the war on foreign-backed terrorism and strategic relations between Moscow and Damascus.
The Russian delegation reaffirmed its support for the Syrian army in retaliating against Takfiri terrorist attacks in northwestern Idlib Province, according to the SANA report.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Friday’s meeting in Damascus “focused on efforts towards the soonest completion of the formation of the Constitutional Committee” in Syria as well as the situation in Idlib.
On Wednesday, the Syrian government and visiting UN envoy Geir Pedersen also announced "progress" towards forming the body, whose composition has dragged for more than 17 months.
Disagreements have raged over the names to be included in the committee, a third of which are to be nominated by the government, another by the opposition, and a final third by the UN envoy.
