Syria
Establishment of the Astana Platform
Recognising the necessity of establishing dialogue between the divided opposition forces in Syria, the Centre for Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA), working alongside Randa Kassis, President of the Astana Platform, appealed to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to help create conditions for a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis.
Two rounds of meetings were subsequently held in Astana—in May and in October 2015—under the aegis of the Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The second round of negotiations, held from 2 to 4 October 2015, was chaired by Kazakh Secretary of State Gulshara Abdykalikova and mediated by the President of CPFA. At its conclusion, most Syrian opposition groups endorsed a final document calling for constitutional reform—as the existing framework did not permit free or fair elections—and for a comprehensive reform of Syria’s electoral process.
These efforts laid the foundations for the Astana Political Platform and helped pave the way for the broader Astana peace process.
The Constitutional Committee
Building on the foundations laid in 2015, CPFA along with the Astana Platform resolved in 2017 to continue their work, taking into account the outcome of the Astana meetings where participants had agreed to draft a new Syrian constitution.
Throughout that year, CPFA along with the Astana Platform organised a series of meetings attended by Syrian constitutionalists, political opposition figures representing diverse forces, and international experts. Among those who contributed were French constitutional law scholar Xavier Latour, former Turkish Foreign Minister Yaşar Yakış, and former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi.
By the end of 2017, a draft Syrian constitution had been completed. In parallel, CPFA along with the Astana Platform also held several meetings with Russian officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva Gennady Gatilov, and others, all of whom played a central role in discussions concerning the establishment of the Syrian Constitutional Committee (SCC).
During this period, Fabien Baussart and Randa Kassis met with Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as İbrahim Kalın, Senior Adviser and Spokesperson to President Erdoğan, in Ankara, reinforcing the regional and international dimension of the initiative.
This momentum culminated in Randa Kassis’s promotion of the SCC at the National Congress of Sochi in January 2018, despite objections from both the Syrian government and parts of the opposition.
The Sant’Egidio Initiative
CPFA along with the Astana Platform appealed to the Community of Sant’Egidio, whose decades-long contribution to peace is widely recognised, to help bolster efforts toward a balanced political settlement in Syria through sustained dialogue across the parties to the conflict.
Following the agreement of the three guarantors of the Syrian political process—Russia, Turkey, and Iran—to establish the Syrian Constitutional Committee (SCC) under UN auspices, the Astana Platform and CPFA, in cooperation with the Community of Sant’Egidio, organised a series of meetings in Rome. These gatherings brought together a wide spectrum of Syrian political opposition forces, including the Syrian National Coalition, the Syrian Negotiation Commission, the Syriac National Council, Kurdish representatives, and others, with the aim of mapping out a roadmap for a political resolution to the Syrian crisis.
In parallel, meetings with Russian officials were also held in 2018, reinforcing the political momentum towards the SCC and ensuring that the opposition’s proposals were communicated directly to one of the main guarantors of the process. The initiative was further strengthened through a meeting between the Astana Platform, CPFA, and Beibut Atamkulov, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, underlining Kazakhstan’s continuing role in supporting international mediation efforts for Syria.
After the Fall of the Assad Regime
After the weakening of the Assad regime, Fabien Baussart and Kelly Kassis, alongside Randa Kassis, travelled to Syria where they met with Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East as well as Sheikh al-Hijiri, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in southern Syria. These encounters highlighted the importance of engaging with religious authorities and community leaders in efforts to foster reconciliation and prepare for a post-conflict order.
In parallel, they also pursued regional dialogue. In Baghdad, Fabien Baussart and Randa Kassis met with Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, then President of the Iraqi Parliament, and Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, both of whom were influential in shaping Iraq’s political landscape at the time. These discussions centred on the broader regional implications of Syria’s conflict and the necessity of building cooperative frameworks across neighbouring states.
Further reinforcing this outreach, meetings were held with Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, and Saleh Tarif, the first Druze minister to serve in the Israeli government. Their involvement underscored the potential of cross-border religious and political dialogue in easing sectarian tensions and fostering stability in the Levant.
