Is the war in syria about to end the u. N. Is bringing the government and the opposition together to try and change the constitution could it be the start of a few political solution to the 8 year conflict this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im Debbie Apollo and 80 years of war have devastated syria and estimated half a 1000000 war dead millions more living as refugees and a country in ruins now signs of food agreement to words what happens next. After 2 years of negotiations the United Nations says the Syrian Government and the opposition will sit down to rewrite the constitution the un hopes its the 1st step towards restarting political talks to end the fighting with syrias largest ethnic minority the kurds is angry at being excluded all thats happening as Government Forces backed by russian airstrikes continue months of onslaught in italy thats the last remaining rebel held province i strongly believe that the launch of the syrian gnomes and syrian lands Constitutional Committee can and must be the beginning of the political process out of the treasure the towards a solution in line with the resolution 2254. 00 that meets the legitimate aspirations of all syrians and these various on a strong commitment to the country so for Energy Independence unity and territorial integrity. So lets have a look at the power of balance in the battlefield the Syrian Government backed by iran and russia control nearly 2 thirds of the country Opposition Armed groups are mainly confined to adlib province in the northwest the Syrian Government launched several offensive to retake the last major remaining rebel stronghold months ago turkey back some of the fighters in it live and has military forces in other cities in the Northern Syria turkish troops went into african jobless and bob after launching an offensive against eisel and Syrian Kurdish fighters the y. P. G. Turkey considers the y. P. G a terrorist organization and wants them out of the border areas the kurds are backed by the us and control much of North Eastern syria thank you it will. We can now bring in our guests joining us on skype from amman is panas sees the uns Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the syria crisis in istanbul is he. Hes the spokesman for the Syrian Negotiations Commission and on skype from damascus talib abraham a former professor at Auburn University welcome to all of you thank you very much for coming on the program im going to start with you mr moon sis to talk about the prospects of this new agreement thats been reached to try and change the constitution there have been several rounds of discussions prior to this do you think this is this how optimistic are you that this time we will see some kind of progress towards some kind of a resolution. Well i mean as the secretary general says this is really a positive Development Development that any dialogue of progress on the Constitutional Committee on those form of the political progress is extremely important from my perspective humanitarian its extremely important to see progress on the political millions of refugees of internally displaced really we are very much looking forward to see progress on the root causes of what makes a situation exterminated this is called unchallenging on the inside syria still yes still remains as a humanitarian crisis for us it is still a protection crisis so at the solution of course is not humanitarian assistance as the root cause is political so any progress on that is very much. Less taper him this was suggested 2 years ago by russia for it to be able to form a committee that would work towards a political solution for syria back then the government rejected it mainly because of the fact that they would be asked to change the constitution what has changed now why is this it would the Syrian Government agree to this now. I dont think that firstly the Sudan Government rejected the project at all but there are well there are some. Contradictions in the between the. Position of Sudan Government and others. Now everything is ok i dont think that anything that big change is bought but if course if you look at the buttons on other grounds had been changes and now the Syrian Government is much more stronger and it will do take a very large part parts of this to get it if there is and this is video we can understand that no government will go up for negotiation or to. Decide the future of the country at or why this government is not controlling the matter apart so for this directory that they haue this is not so important but the most important change from my point of view is that there is a kind of International Consensus about finding a letter to go to delusions of the crisis in syria because now it is an International Crisis and that not only for syria for all of that and i were hooked onto that even voted against nonces and here in studio we are very happy to see this agreement about a Constitutional Committee which will open the door rugby for vote but it got a situation which made him that tragedy of millions of syrians and that mr ellery the how confident are you that he would be able to they would be able to make progress with this Committee Given the fact that the Syrian Government right now has the upper hand what or what would you say the opposition are looking for there was originally there was a proposition to amend the constitution but the opposition groups have asked to completely rewrite the constitution is there a compromise in between. Well 1st of all we consider this to be a step in the right direction towards achieving peace and. Implementing the Un Security Council resolutions starting from the geneva communique up to 2254 from the very beginning. Of this crisis in syria the regime has just selected for itself the military one not the peaceful one selected this because just raised the a motto that either i rule this country or i ruin it and this continued as such for a long time and people were forced to resist and then interfered be taken the interference of terrorism with the russians interference actually things as you can remember probably remember that 90 minute putin said that we will be there in 2015 for a few months and we are going to solve this problem and now 4 years have passed and nothing has happened they talk about politics about. Political solution all the time but what they do on the ground is a military one all along they have rejected the peaceful approach the to the crisis in geneva there were several rounds and all the time there were progress to nation on obstacles and this Constitutional Committee which is making all this. Noise about what is happening in syria and the possibility or probability for developing a peaceful a peace process. Came as a result of the agreement on the Constitutional Committee under the pressure of the russians because the russians achieved all sorts of things at the military level when it comes to the political one there were no gains so they felt at a certain point that they need to do something at the political level the president very genial it agreed and we hope that this 1st step could be an introduction to political. Peace process that would bring city are back to life this is our expectation and this is our hope and we need to put syria as a priority over him and he selfish interests or any aggression or personal interests because it concerns everybody especially when it has become a world issue so many hands are interfering in this installation and that has to be a solution and the russians probably at last they came to their. Reason and they pressured the one that the selected the minister the bath all the way and now we hope that there could be an international will to again bring syria back to life through an actual reality substantial political process ok at this time im saying the people that are suffering the most in the midst of all of this are the people of syria many of them have had to leave the country to find security and safety how do you hope that their interests and their voice will be heard within the framework of these constitutional jewing these discussions that are that are being planned well it is vital that the voices of all syrians inside but also the refugees are displaced people are very much taken into account to be able to move to a way forward a lawmaker every syrian will be watching and following very closely to see how it progresses and most importantly what effect would it have in their lives in the near future but also the years to come there is a lot at stake many syrians have gone through tremendous suffering displacement losing loved ones many still continue to live in very difficult circumstances and actually hundreds of thousands of people are still being displaced and the moment there is a significant dependence also on International Humanitarian assistance to help the Syrian People wherever they are so their voices participation and taking your concerns into account their concerns is extremely vital for a constructive way forward i think that cannot be exercised enough. Mr burnham and im going back again ive previously there were issues with forming this Committee Previous versions of this committee because of the makeup and the fact that the opposition would be involved how willing do you think the government is to work with the opposition for a political solution yes i think of it as area and dish and i believe that in that sense prime deceit and government to put an end to this war and if this isnt possible without working with the opposition especially specific political as if they were scorched possibly of performing a power sharing government are losing some of their authority to the opposition. None of the this is a another issue but i think there is a good and distance from there for the government to work with the political. Opposition and to work to get out of course the what the gun cost of that on the sort front or isis or other terrorist groups as a part of the opposition as anyhow i think now that. The matter is about a unified syria and i think how to rebuild syria how to make a new state in syria a new democratic and stable a state which we got out of the order that i told everybody was the being here in syria no one can see that the excess that interventions which had been inside syria are going on think that rights civil rights and the human rights of the syrians not is this not in syria what about direction direction so if the rationale that nations and their best and i think relative. Or working together being governor the people position and to make all guns be silent decide all guns and do our together in a peaceful way in a political way and i think this is a very good. Introduction to write a new constitution for the concrete in which we must find what it together delusion and opposed to get an answer to all the questions which had been evasive in the last is the difficulty years from the life of syrians this very day i make this point again now how confident are you that the current governments and their representatives will be willing to compromise so will be really willing to negotiate at the expense of them loosing authority or even losing part of their power. Well we are confident about the rights of Syrian People to have like a human being on the face of this earth to a. Normal life to lead a democratic way of just doing things to have their rights not to be oppressed not to be jailed not to be displaced or uprooted from their land not to have their houses destroyed we believe in this and this is this is assured. The whole world shows syrians with their plight. Not effectively but at least theyre recognized that they are being under all sorts of oppression does ship now how confident are we with when it comes to the to the other side not that very confident because we know the study implemented or the study apology from the very beginning on the part of the regime because it just selected this military path or either you are under my control or ruin your jail you or destroy your home or you are displaced all these things now if there is a possibility for everybody putting serious interests and her people above Everything Else there is a possibility another factor that makes us comfort and also that the International Community is tired and old those countries interfering in syria are really tired and some of them are cornered you cannot imagine the pressure being exercised on russia on the part of the the or peons the americans also the pressure inside the russia at the economic level and there could be a possibility that under this pressure russia said to its service to itself that well enough is enough now we are trying to control the city and jerky so that that a g. M. Would be in control they are trying to do it but not that e. G. Thats the point they say that. Controls 2 thirds of the jigaboos or thats not true it is the running nisha the Russian Military the so horses etc now how does it not been for that i sions all the iranians that he would have fallen years ago but now we are in such a stew ation we we have. You and resilient sions in particular 2 to 5 for that talks about starting a political process that would put syria back to life and this is what we are working for if there is a gene for once becomes quite responsible if it exists as some sort of morality if it thinks of the opening of the children of assyrians for all these years that have been suffering unlike any other but in the world probably they would just. Have a real human feeling that there should be a solution if they continue to be such centered around themselves caring about this governing oppressing controlling everything. Not caring about people no solution would be found but we believe and we hope and we are confident that theres a possibility for a solution lets tear him i do you think the current Syrian Government the government of bashar assad is. We looking for a solution in the situation. In in syria in the way that it will return to a democracy so that perhaps even they can lose their seat of power. Yes i think the government is very much concerned about the citizens or does not their government promise or a government from other nation. I think yes and even president bush on a set c. Than the previous piece of that syria is over everything and i am sure that now the government is working everything and trying to do everything in which. Go to. The right or syrians inside and out say syria and we will be very very much the bitch if you order a few of us come back door their country and work on their factories and their families and live their ordinary life we love to see that this are the syria which we use a. Secular syria and syria was our despicable nation between any any any ethnicity or between any religious or group i think yes the government does but we were concerned about that and working for that and i think that we must work we must work with there with the parties inside the Syrian Opposition who are taking care about that and the rest of syria syria as a state and as a nation motherboards who are representing the dervish interests are saudi interests or america and the rest as are other countries and diverse that we want to see it sooner than it was unusual for sunni and purposes and for syria divisions syria as for syria and nothing else and my question to you would be why arent the kurdish population represented and the committee and heard something that the Syrian Government has not wanted that syrias largest minority shouldnt they be part of the conversation. From there begin to get good going to this isolated themselves and that east of your breath is and the jews and their nachos and thought it was United States not they were the other city and they were fighting as our solidarity. Yes fighting icily photos does not mean there they must put their hands on oil of sources and only get a gun shot and not to burden that other that goddess of other arabs and what not thought the law but shut us out of that earlier there was a guy in the options really very very very distant discrimination between arabs and between this how the discrimination and displacement is being made but when i see them Democratic Forces or was it it back again. This group started from the beginning they have chosen to i sort of them to sell that every go 1st represented by someone else every group had a backing from someone else regardless im going to leave that there and go to go back to mr muncie s. And ask him about the plight of Syrian Refugees many of them are living in limbo with no prospects to go home or to leave will there be any provisions made sure in these discussions which could take a very long time for them what do you hope that they will be able to do in order to get back home. Well the plight of refugees is extremely important the course also the plight of the millions of syrians who are displaced within their own country and many people are really being suffering with the United Nations secretary general and through his special envoy. To get paid his son is leading the United Nations discussion in geneva in really finding moving forward so the life of the psionic the g. s and i would say the overall human its a response