Gavrilov: Change of Constitution in Syria Must be Made through Syrian People’s Proposal and Approval

Member of the Communist Party of Russia Sergey Gavrilov has underscored that his country’s proposed ideas on “draft constitution” for Syria aims to speed up progress towards a political solution and to maintain Syria’s unity.

Speaking to the Syrian official “al-Baath” newspaper, Gavrilov described the talk of change in Russia’s attitudes towards Syria after Astana meeting as ‘groundless’ and ‘mere illusions’.

“Russia rejects intervention in the internal affairs of other countries under any pretext. So we believe that change of constitution in Syria must be made through the Syrian people’s proposal and approval,” he clarified, pointing out that the most important point in any constitution is the emphasis on the unity of Syria.

 “Political solution must guarantee the country’s unity and not fragmentation,” the Russian MP said, stressing that it is important to reach a solution to the existence of military groups [ American and British groups] in Syria without approval of the legal Syrian government .

“Russia is the only country that has a lot of experience in what happens. It has previous experiences in Caucasus unlike the American side that caused the escalation of situations in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq because of its modest experience. This is an evidence of the failure of the American policy,” Gavrilov affirmed.

He added that all must be united to reach political solution and hence citizens must activate their roles and express their desire for peaceful solution.

” Russia is seeking to push everyone to sit down at the negotiation table to reach agreement. What concerns us is to keep Syria united,”  the Russian MP concluded.

Sergey Gavrilov was among members of the Russian parliamentary delegation visited Syria few days ago.

Basma Qaddour