UN special envoy visits Syria for peace discussions

UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura arrived in Syria from Beirut on Monday for talks with officials in Damascus to follow up on efforts at ending the four-year conflict, official media reports said.
De Mistura has been trying to facilitate local ceasefires in different areas of Syria since October 2014. His efforts are currently focused on a “freeze” to the fighting in the northern city of Aleppo.
De Mistura on the eve of his route to Damascus, have discussed in Germany promotion of implementing his plan for local ceasefires, as well as issues of consolidating efforts in the fight against the terror threat in the country with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.