Brahimi holding talks with Iran and Russia

GENEVA – UN envoy  Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday on a planned international conference aimed at ending the crisis in Syria, Brahimi’s spokeswoman said,according to Reuters.

“They discussed preparations for ‘Geneva 2’ in general, not specifically Iran’s participation,” Khawla Mattar told Reuters in Geneva where they met at the United Nations complex. “They were catching up.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who flew to Geneva on Friday to join talks between six major powers and Iran on curbing its nuclear programme, was expected to meet Brahimi later in the day or on Saturday, according to diplomats and a source in the Russian delegation to the Iran negotiations.

The United Nations hopes the “Geneva 2” conference, which Moscow and Washington are trying to arrange, can convene in mid-December to try to end more than 2-1/2 years of conflict in Syria .

Brahimi is to hold “trilateral” talks with Russian deputy foreign ministers Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Gatilov, as well as U.S. Under Secretary Wendy Sherman, in Geneva on Monday.

The list of invitees for the Geneva 2 conference as well as participation of the Syrian opposition are on the agenda.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to announce the conference dates subsequently and send out invitations.

M.D