The Syrian Constitutional Committee began its work precisely 19 months after the idea to establish the body was made in Sochi in late January 2018. Back then, the initiative seemed quixotic to most.

On Oct. 30, in Geneva, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen formally launched the 150-member Syrian Constitutional Committee comprised of 50 delegates from the government, the opposition and civil society. To recap, it was the Syrian National Dialogue Congress held in Sochi in January last year that produced the idea. Back then, the structure of the body was discussed — the idea originally put forward by Russia and backed by Turkey and Iran. It took the three states almost 12 months to work out the composition. For a long time, official Damascus refused to discuss the country's future political structure at any venues outside Syria. The opposition, in its own turn, did not want to engage in a dialogue amid ongoing fighting. The Astana trio would then have to force the parties into dialogue.

Finally, when the list of delegates was nevertheless agreed on last December, the UN turned it down as it had issues accepting a number of nominees from the civil society slot. It took another 10 months to have each party satisfied or, at least, put up an impression of having been satisfied.

Since the Sochi congress, the situation on the ground has changed dramatically. Three of the four de-escalation zones have ceased to exist, and Damascus-controlled territory has expanded significantly. More importantly, the Astana format, and especially the Russian-Turkish relationship, has demonstrated resilience both in word and deed. Moscow has forged closer bonds with both Riyadh and Doha, which ultimately had a profound impact on the Syrian armed opposition. The opposition itself has eventually become markedly more flexible, which, among other things, was demonstrated in their statements at the Geneva meeting that were toned differently. Remarkably, the final list of the Syrian Constitutional Committee saw neither prominent opposition leader include many big names in Damascus' and civil society's delegations. While the committee’s list was being negotiated, every name that could potentially spark somebody's negative reaction was crossed out.