Don't wait until peace talks, world envoy tells Syrians

The international envoy on Syria Monday urged the country's warring sides not to wait until January 22 peace talks to take steps to rein in fighting on the ground. "We very strongly appeal to the Syrian government and the opposition to not to wait for the conference," said United Nations and Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, urging the sides to "diminish the violence (and) release prisoners and detainees of all sorts." "But being realistic, a lot of the things that need to happen will happen after the conference starts," he told reporters in Geneva. Brahimi, who spent Monday in closed-door talks with US and Russian officials working on peace plans, spoke after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the date of the long-delayed Geneva conference on Syria.

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