Assad ‘planning a totally new secular constitution’

Syrian President Bashar Assad is planning a new constitution for his country to ensure equal rights for all citizens and to eliminate discrimination towards religious minorities, according to a delegation of bishops that visited him recently, writes Ellen Teague.

The delegation of the Syrian Catholic Church, which was led by Patriarch Ignace Youssif III and included six other bishops, was briefed by the Syrian President in Damascus on 13 June.

During the 90-minute meeting Mr Assad expressed his intention to remove from the new constitution the provision which binds the head of the Syrian state to profess the Muslim religion. He also mentioned his determination to resist aggression by the Islamic State, and said that all players in the Middle East should oppose the jihadist ideology.

Last month Assad dismissed reports that Russia, with the blessing of the United States, was drafting a new constitution for Syria that would reduce the president’s powers and set up a more decentralised government. Yet, the plans mentioned to the bishops tie in closely with leaked proposals in that Russian draft.

A rising against President Assad five years ago became a full-scale civil war that has left more than 400,000 dead, caused 4.8 million to flee the country and drawn in global powers. Although Assad has ruthlessly suppressed dissent, the Syrian Catholic bishops feel he has proven tolerant of religious minorities, and fear Western interference could lead to more violence and persecution of Christians. The anti-Assad rebels have persecuted Christians in captured territory.

Meanwhile, last Sunday, the head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, escaped injury in a suicide attack that killed three people in Qamishli, northern Syria. The bomber targeted a hall where the patriarch was speaking at a gathering commemorating the Assyrian Genocide of 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.