Russia's Lavrov due in Cairo for diplomatic flurry

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was on his way to Cairo on Sunday, state media said, as he kicks off a flurry of diplomatic activity focussing on the 19-month-old conflict in ally Syria. Upon arriving, Lavrov would hold joint talks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN and Arab League peace envoy for Syria, Egypt's MENA news agency reported. Other media outlets said that he was also due to hold meetings on Monday with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr. They said the discussions would also touch on the situation in Libya a year after the Arab Spring-inspired armed uprising that ousted the regime of former Russian ally Moamer Kadhafi. Lavrov is then scheduled to head to Jordan on Monday for talks with King Abdullah II and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, according to Judeh. "The Russian foreign minister is visiting Jordan tomorrow and the day after," to discuss the Syrian crisis, Judeh told reporters after meeting in Kuwait with his counterpart in the Gulf emirate. "Talks and dialogue with Russia must continue. It is part of the international effort to stop violence and killing in Syria," said Judeh. The Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 when forces of President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's last major ally in the region, moved to crush pro-reform protests, triggering an armed uprising. More than 36,000 people have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Judeh appealed for greater international assistance for Syrian refugees ahead of winter, saying that so far more than 210,000 of them have crossed the border into Jordan. Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah meanwhile said that a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers and Lavrov would take place mid-November to discuss the Syrian issue, but he did not specify the location.