Small Group on Syria Statement

We, the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America made the following statement of support for the urgent convening of a constitutional committee to advance the UN’s efforts to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

The Syrian conflict has dragged on for more than seven years at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions forcibly displaced by violence both within Syria and beyond its borders. There is an urgent need for concerted diplomacy and international political will to end the conflict. There is no military solution to the war and no alternative to a political solution. We affirm in the strongest terms that those who seek a military solution will only succeed in increasing the risk of a dangerous escalation and wider conflagration of the crisis to the region and beyond. It is, therefore, imperative to move forward with a political solution consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

To that end, we call on the UN and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to convene, as quickly as possible, a credible, inclusive constitutional committee that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the groundwork for free and fair UN-supervised elections in a safe and neutral environment in which all eligible Syrians – including those in the diaspora – have a right to participate. We urge the UN Special Envoy for Syria to report back to the Security Council on his progress no later than October 31.

We underscore the Office of the UN Special Envoy’s clear mandate from the Secretary-General and the UN Security Council to move forward with convening a constitutional committee, and encourage all sides to ensure the Syrian parties are prepared to engage substantively in the committee’s proceedings once convened.