New Syria envoy Brahimi arrives for first visit to the region
By Ramadan Al-Fatash and Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
Cairo (dpa) - Lakhdar Brahimi, the second special envoy to be appointed by the United Nations and Arab League to mediate in the Syria conflict, arrived for his first visit to the region on Sunday.
The Algerian diplomat touched down in Cairo, where he was due to hold talks with Arab League chief Nabil Al-Araby and members of the Syrian opposition on ending the 18-month conflict.
He is also scheduled to meet Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi, a critic of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
Brahimi has indicated that he plans to visit Damascus this month.
An Iranian official was Sunday quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying Brahimi and Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi had agreed in a telephone conversation on a visit to Tehran by the Syria envoy. Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi did not however give an exact date.
Brahimi last week took over from Kofi Annan, the former UN chief who resigned as Syria envoy in early August, complaining of "continuous finger-pointing and name-calling" at the UN Security Council.
Annan had wanted to involve Iran, a fierce supporter of al-Assad in his six-point peace plan for Syria. The plan failed and the fighting between troops loyal to al-Assad and rebel forces escalated.
Syrian opposition groups estimated that more than 26,000 people have been killed in the 18-month conflict.
Earlier Sunday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed scepticism that Washington and Moscow could reach agreement on a common position on Syria.
"We have to be realistic. We haven't seen eye-to-eye," Clinton told reporters at the end of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Russian city of Vladivostock.
"I will continue to work with (Russian) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to see if we can revisit the idea of putting the Syrian transition plan that we agreed to in Geneva earlier this summer into a Security Council resolution,” said Clinton.
She was referring to a peace plan agreed in June, calling for a truce and political transition to end the conflict in Syria.
Russia, a key ally of al-Assad, wants to take the plan to the UN Security Council for an endorsement, a step about which the US is lukewarm.
“That will only be effective if it includes consequences for non-compliance ... We have to bring more pressure to bear on the al-Assad regime to end the bloodshed and begin a political, democratic transition," she added.
Clinton said her talks with Lavrov had only achieved “limited progress.
Russia has with China vetoed three United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning the Syrian government's crackdown on the opposition.
Around 90 people, including 21 soldiers, were killed in clashes between the military and rebels on Sunday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.
The opposition said government troops had stepped up attacks on pro-rebel areas in the northern city of Aleppo and the province of Daraa in the south, where the first anti-government protests took place in March 2011.
