New U.N. Syria Envoy to Visit Damascus Tuesday
The new United Nations envoy on the Syria conflict, Staffan de Mistura, is to make his first trip to Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian media reported.
De Mistura will hold three days of talks on the "prospects for a solution" to the conflict that has ravaged Syria since March 2011, the Al-Watan newapaper, which is close to the government, reported on Monday.
A European diplomat in Beirut told AFP that de Mistura would arrive in the Lebanese capital on Monday and travel to Damascus by road on Tuesday.
While in Damascus, de Mistura will also meet representatives of opposition groups tolerated by the regime, Al-Watan said.
A former Italian deputy foreign minister, de Mistura was appointed in July to replace veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned in May after two rounds of peace talks ended in failure.
More than 180,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Source: Agence France Presse
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