Al-Ibrahimi to head to Syria on Thursday, first visit since assigned

The UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Al-Ibrahimi is to head to Syria on Thursday in his first visit since taking his post, where he is to meet with President Bashar Al-Assad, Iraq's permanent delegate to the Arab League Qais Al-Azzawi said on Wednesday here. In a statement, Al-Azzawi, following his meeting with Al-Ibrahimi, noted that the league has granted Al-ibrahimi full authority to solve the Syrian crisis, and refused to determine a timeframe for his mission. Some Arab states requested determining a timeframe for Al-Ibrahimi's mission, Al-Azzawi added, indicating that Iraq, however, as its capacity as current president of the Arab League, refused the request and that his (Ibrahimi) mission is too difficult to determine a timeframe for. During his visit to Syria, Al-Ibrahimi would meet with Syrian officials and other sides in the opposition in order to begin with his mission by contacting Arab, regional, and international countries, Al-Azzawi explained, noting that Al-Ibrahimi will meet afterwards with delegates of Arab countries to be the commissioner of all Arab-UN countries in solving the Syrian crisis in a peaceful manner.