Damascus: International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks in Damascus yesterday at the end of a Middle East tour to promote a Syrian peace conference, but regional tensions have cast a pall over his mission.
Brahimi visited capitals across the Middle East to discuss plans for the “Geneva 2” meeting, tentatively set for November 23, to try to halt more than 2-1/2 years of bloodshed in Syria.
But opposition forces have not yet decided whether they will attend and Gulf Arab states backing the Syrian rebels have soured on the talks after Brahimi said on Saturday that their rival Iran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main regional ally, should join the international conference.
Brahimi met Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, in Damascus but there was no word on whether Assad would see him.
Reuters
