Syrian government forces retook a Christian town north of Damascus today, expelling al-Qaeda-linked rebels after a week of heavy fighting, state media and opposition activists said.
The recapture of Sadad coincided with the first visit to Syria by the UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in almost a year. The trip is part of Brahimi's efforts to convene a long-delayed peace conference on Syria next month, although fundamental disagreements over the agenda and participants remain, making it unclear whether the gathering will indeed take place.
The United States and Russia have been trying for months to bring the Syrian government and its opponents to the negotiating table to find a political solution to Syria's civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed and some 2 million have fled the country since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
After his last trip to Syria in December 2012, Brahimi angered Syrian authorities when he said that 40 years of rule by the family of President Bashar Assad was "too long." Syrian officials then accused him of being biased.
In the run-up to this visit, Brahimi traveled to several countries in the region, including Iran, a key Assad ally. He said Saturday that Tehran participation in a peace conference is "necessary."
Today, Brahimi travelled from Tehran by private jet to Beirut, before continuing by road to Damascus, where he was received by Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. During his visit, Brahimi is expected to meet Syrian officials as well as members of local opposition groups. It is not clear whether he will meet Assad.
The Syrian president told the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV last week that Brahimi "should abide by his mission and not go out of this framework." Assad added that Brahimi "is a mediator and the mediator should be neutral and stand in the middle."
The president added that during one of Brahimi's previous visits to Syria, the envoy "tried to convince me about the necessity of not running in the coming presidential elections in 2014. This was at the end of 2012. My answer was clear, that this is an internal Syrian affair and is not negotiable with any person who is not Syrian."
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby recently said the Geneva conference would be held on November 23. Brahimi, however, has stressed that no date has been set but that the United Nations hopes to hold the talks in late November.
A UN diplomat, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said today Syrian deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, met with US officials in Geneva over the weekend to discuss the possibility of holding a second Geneva peace conference, but no breakthroughs were reported to have come out of the talks.
