TEHRAN - Ali Asghar Khaji, a senior advisor to the Iranian foreign minister, has attended a multilateral meeting with officials from Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations to discuss issues related to Syria. 

The envoys of Iran, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations at the end of the 8th round of talks over the Syrian constitution exchanged views over the results of the negotiations, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. 

UN Special Envoy for Syria at the meeting Geir Pedersen thanked the three guarantors of the Astana peace process for their cooperation and support and the continuation of the Syrian constitutional committee represented by the senior representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey. Pedersen also gave a report about this round of talks between Syrian sides within the framework of the constitutional committee.

He described the atmosphere of this round of negotiations as positive, saying this is very encouraging and will pave the way for achieving better results in the future.

The senior diplomats of the three guarantors outlined their views regarding the developments in Syria and expressed concern over the surge in the problems of the Syrian people.

Iranian diplomat Khaji criticized the West for imposing unilateral and illegal sanctions on the Syrian people and conditioning Syria's reconstruction on a political settlement. Khaji also condemned a surge in the Zionist regime's aggression and its attacks on Syria’s infrastructure and civilian places. He described the silence of the international community toward the Israeli aggression as unfortunate.

It must be noted that the Syrian constitutional committee consists of 150 members from the government, the opposition and civil society. Each session convenes after being made up of a smaller committee with 15 members from each side. All parties agreed to hold the next session in late July (in less than two months) in Geneva. Prior to the four-way meeting, the envoys of the three guarantors of the Astana process held talks with each other.