DAMASCUS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Saturday it has sent the name list of the government delegation for the UN-backed constitutional committee to the Russian and Iranian ambassadors to Syria.
The ministry was quoted by the state news agency SANA as saying that the committee was to discuss the current constitution, giving no further details.
The announcement came just a week after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in Russia that his government was going to send the name list of the government delegation for the constitutional committee in the UN.
Assad met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi on May 17, during which the two leaders discussed the formation of a constitutional committee and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria, as they are thought as the first steps on the path to a political solution in Syria.
The Syrian government said the constitutional committee should include representatives from the government and opposition figures who attended the latest round of Syrian talks in Sochi earlier this year, in order to review the current constitution and propose new amendments.
However, Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy to Syria, was said to have been mulling a list including rebel groups which didn't attend the previous Sochi talks.
A day earlier, Putin said both Moscow and Paris welcomed the Syrian government's decision to send its delegation to the UN-led constitutional committee.
"We consider the formation and launch of the constitutional committee in Geneva as our priority. We have welcomed Damascus' decision to send its representatives to this entity," Putin said at a press briefing following his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
