Moscow – Raed Jaber

Rebooted Syria peace talks held in the Kazakh capital, Astana, kicked off on Wednesday with a series of preliminary bilateral meetings during which diplomatic sources said challenges facing the formation of a Syrian constitutional commission surfaced. Delegates, however, said there is still hope for the body to come together before the end of 2018.

“The process of forming a constitutional committee is difficult for both sides. We do not want to rush in this matter, and we will seek to approve the list of members of the Constitutional Committee by the end of this year,” the source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“We have reached an agreement on 75 percent of the list of members, and we have to agree on 15 or 16 candidates representing the civil society,” they added.

The situation surrounding the northern Idlib de-escalation zone and the creation of Syria’s constitutional committee will dominate the agenda of the 11th Astana meeting set for November 28-29.

Ahead of the meeting, Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian president's special envoy for Syria, told reporters that the establishment of a constitutional committee for a new constitution, the ceasefire in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, the problems of refugees and the fight against terrorism will be discussed in upcoming sessions.

Russia will also be weighing in on Turkey speeding up the implementation of the buffer zone agreement, struck between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially in Idlib, insider sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

According to the September agreement achieved in Sochi, rebel-backer Turkey presented itself as an insurer for a full withdrawal of armed Syrian opposition factions from designated de-escalation zones.

The province of Idlib in northwest Syria is the last remaining stronghold of terrorist groups operating in the country, including Jabhat al-Nusra, which has joined forces with four other jihadi groups in Idlib to form a terrorist alliance called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, widely regarded as the dominant force on the ground in the province.

With Russia, Turkey and Iran acting as guarantor states, delegations representing Syrian warring parties, both regime and government, arrived in Kazakhstan alongside Jordan and UN officials attending as observers.

Moscow is looking to invite other countries concerned with the Syria crisis to attend its championed Astana talks for Syria, well-informed diplomatic sources told Asharq Al Awsat under the conditions of anonymity. They pointed out that Lebanon, a host for over a million refugees, is on the list of prospect states to be invited next to Iraq, the UAE and any other country capable for helping the peace process along.