Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived in Sochi on Monday to attend the Syrian Congress of National Dialogue. The envoy arrived by a regular flight from Moscow, but reporters’ access to him at the airport was restricted.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided on January 27 to send de Mistura there. Moscow welcomed this move.
Earlier, the envoy expressed hope that the Congress in Sochi will help galvanize the Geneva process on Syria.
The Syrian Congress of National Dialogue will be held in Sochi on January 29-30. According to organizers, about 1,600 delegates representing all social strata in Syria were invited to the forum. According to their nationality, most of the participants are Arabs (94.5%), but among those invited are also Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, Abkhazians, Turkoman people and Druzes.
All major regional and international external players were invited to the Congress as observers.
One of the main tasks of the Congress is establishment of a commission to develop Syria’s constitution.