Russian envoys meet Syrian president

Several Russian envoys met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and discussed a constitutional committee, trade, as well as the ways to improve Syria’s relations with neighboring Arab countries, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Formation of a constitutional committee is key to political reforms and new elections meant to unify Syria and end an eight-year war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced about half of Syria’s pre-war 22 million population.

Syria’s opposition last year agreed to join the process of rewriting the constitution under U.N. auspices following a peacemaking conference in the Russian city of Sochi.

Russia has been a close ally of Assad and in 2015 launched a military intervention there to support his forces, turning the tide of the war in Assad’s favor.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Friday that Assad met Russia’s Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin and several Russian Defence Ministry officials.

Separately, Interfax news agency, citing the Russian government, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov would meet Assad in Damascus later on Saturday to talk about cooperation in trade and economy.