Zarif, arriving Tuesday at the United Nations in Geneva for talks with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Mehmet Cavusoglu, hosted by UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, was asked whether he expected a deal to be reached. “I hope so,” he told reporters, Reuters reported.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday evening that Zarif would go to Geneva to attend a trilateral consultative meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts and the UN secretary general’s special envoy for Syria for talks on the Syrian constitutional committee.
De Mistura, who steps down at year-end, has tried since January to clinch an agreement on the identity of 150 members of the new constitutional committee to revitalize a dormant peace process.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the opposition have each submitted a list of 50 names, but Iran, Russia and Turkey have haggled over the final 50 members from civil society and “independent” members.
De Mistura said at the weekend the constitutional committee could be a starting point for political progress.