Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
and an envoy from ally Russia on Sunday discussed "removing the obstacles" to forming a constitutional committee demanded by international powers to help end the seven-year war, the presidency said.
The leaders of Russia, rebel backer
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
, Germany, and La Belle France last week in Istanbul called for the committee to be formed by the end of the year to discuss a post-war constitution, "paving the way for free and fair elections" in Syria.
On Sunday, Assad held talks with Russian envoy Alexander Lavrentiev on "forming the committee to discuss the current constitution", the presidency said in a statement.
They agreed "to continue joint Syrian-Russian work towards removing the obstacles still in the way of forming this committee", it said.