Syria’s ex-VP Shara may take part in Sochi conference

CAIRO – 21 November 2017: Former Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara may head the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi – due to take place between December 2 and 4, according to a news report published by Pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

According to the report, the Kremlin is studying a proposal offered by Syrian opposition members to invite Shara to head the Sochi conference, which aims at two results:
First: formation of a committee for constitutional reforms, whether to amend the current constitution of 2012 or to draft a new constitution.

Second: declaring a leadership or a council of the "National Dialogue Congress".
According to the paper’s report, some opposition figures have asked officials in the Russian defense and foreign ministries to invite former Vice President Shara to "head the Sochi conference, since he is a patriotic figure approved by a massive part of opposition members and state employees."

Russian officials looked "enthusiastic about this proposal to start discussing it on the level of leadership in Moscow and the possibility of proposing it to Damascus under the item of compromises and constitutional and political reform within light of the preservation of state institutions," the report quoted from a Syrian opposition figure.

There are suggestions circulated in news reports that the upcoming Geneva talks include direct dialogue between the Syrian regime and the opposition in order to launch a constitutional reform, and that the Sochi meeting will be followed by another round of Geneva talks on December 8.