High-level representatives of the three countries involved in Syria talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana — Russia, Iran and Turkey — have taken part in a two-day session in Geneva this week dedicated to the political resolution of the Syrian conflict. The delegates discussed with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, the formation of the Syrian Constitutional Committee. The countries had reached an agreement to form the committee in January during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi.

Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Syria, summed it up this way: Moscow expects the last stage of discussion on the committee to take place in mid-July, during a separate meeting in Geneva. Lavrentiev also mentioned that Moscow and Ankara have been in constant contact over Kurdish participation in the constitutional committee, in which the Kurds will eventually be represented.

“The Kurds will take part in the Syrian Constitutional Committee anyway," Lavrentiev said. "Their representatives will be included in every faction: opposition groups, the government’s delegation and civil society. We ask everyone to abstain from dividing the Kurds into pro-Turkish, pro-Russian or PYD [Democratic Union Party] and YPG [People's Protection Units] categories, the latter of which is viewed negatively in Ankara.”

In his efforts to revive the stalled Geneva talks, de Mistura spent the last month in numerous consultations. On June 6, he visited Istanbul, where he met with Turkish government officials, as well as Syrian opposition leaders from the Syrian High Negotiations Committee and National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. On June 9, he visited Tehran, and on June 11, he visited Egypt. The constitutional committee, which should generate and propose ideas for the country’s new constitution, will consist of 150 members. Of the 150 members,100 will represent the government and moderate or “internal” opposition, and 50 will represent the so-called external opposition. De Mistura, however, would like the committee to be limited to no more than 50 members total.