Brahimi Meets With Assad, Discusses Ways To End Syria Conflict

UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi after his arrival in Damascus on September 13.

Visiting international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss ways to end the conflict in that country, where authorities are waging a brutal campaign against Arab Spring-style protests and insurrection.

"We discussed the Syrian crisis and I repeat, this crisis is very dangerous," Brahimi told reporters after the talks in Damascus.

Brahimi also said that "this crisis is deteriorating and represents a danger to the Syrian people, to the region, and to the whole world."

It was Brahimi's first meeting with Assad since he replaced Kofi Annan as peace envoy two weeks ago.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 160 people were killed in Syria on September 24.

Some estimates put the total number of deaths near 20,000 since the violence broke out in March 2011.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP