Brahimi Discusses Syria with Iran FM in Geneva

The U.N.-Arab League's Syria peace envoy held talks Friday with key Damascus ally Iran amid renewed efforts to bring the country's warring sides to the negotiating table.

Veteran mediator Lakhdar Brahimi had a half-hour discussion in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minster Mohammad Jarad Zarif, Brahimi's spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

"It was a follow-up to the meeting they had in Tehran on October 26 and 27, and to take stock of preparations for Geneva II," she said, referring to another long hoped-for Syria peace conference.

Zarif was in Geneva for a new round of negotiations with world powers including the United States and Russia on Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Brahimi was scheduled Monday to hold high-level talks in the Swiss city with U.S. and Russian officials.

The international community has struggled to broker talks between the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebels battling him since a bloody March 2011 crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests.

The so-called Geneva II negotiations are meant to be based on talks held in June 2012, where world powers called for a Syrian transition government.

But the warring sides failed to agree on whether Assad or his inner circle could play a role, and amid spiraling fighting the proposal stalled, and plans for Geneva II have repeatedly been put on hold.

Iran is a key supporter of Assad, and Russia has sought to have Tehran involved in any peace talks, raising hackles in the West.