Syria parties to meet in same room, 'understand what is at stake': Brahimi
United Nations Syria Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced that Syria's two warring factions have agreed to meet directly and will support efforts to implement the Geneva I communique.
Geneva, Switzerland__ The United Nations' Syria envoy announced that Syria's two bitterly divided parties have agreed to sit down together in the same room Saturday for the first time, after refusing to do so today, and that he was cautiously encouraged by the discussions he had with the two sides separately over the past two days.
"Tomorrow, [the two sides] have agreed to meet in the same room," Lakhdar Brahimi, the Algerian diplomat who serves as the joint UN/Arab League envoy for Syria, told journalists at a press conference at the Palais des Nations Friday.
"We never expected it to be easy, but I think the two parties understand what is at stake," Brahimi said. "Their country is in very bad shape."
Brahimi said both the Syrian government and opposition delegations had agreed to endorse an effort to seek a UN Security Council resolution, that would call for the international community to support the implementation of the Geneva 1 communique. The consenses document, reached at a July 2012 meeting of world powers, called for the formation of a transitional governing body to be formed, by mutual consent between the Syrian parties, and which would have full executive authority.
