Diplomatic effort to bring peace to Syria continues

January 23, 2014: The UN Radio has reported that the UN and Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is expected to meet government and opposition representatives from the country on Thursday as part of a diplomatic effort to bring peace to the war-ravaged country.

More than 100,000 people have died in Syria and 11 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance following three years of internal conflict.

A UN-backed conference was held in the Swiss resort of Montreux on Wednesday as a first step in the latest international effort to end the fighting, but the Syrian delegations are yet to hold face-to-face negotiations.

The envoy, said that he will meet both Syrian delegations separately before attempting to bring them together in the same room on Friday in Geneva. But he warned that he was under no illusion that it would be easy.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said it was not too late to end the bloodshed and urged the Syrian representatives to act "decisively and courageously."

Source: UN Radio