UN-Arab League envoy to meet Syrian president (Roundup)

The UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is expected to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad even as Saudi Arabia's grand mufti advised jihadists against going to Syria to fight.

Brahimi is expected to meet Assad during his visit to Syria, UN secretary-general's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.

"He (Brahimi) hopes to meet with President Assad, but at the moment we cannot say exactly when it will happen," said Farhan Haq told ITAR-TASS Monday.

According to him, the UN and Arab League emissary also intended to meet with Syrian officials and representatives of the internal opposition.

According to the UN secretary-general's spokesperson, Brahimi "will stay in Damascus a few days".

According to previous reports, the envoy arrived in Damascus due to "the need for additional contacts with the Syrian side" on issues related to the preparation of Geneva II, the second peace conference on Syria, which UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes to convene in November.

Brahimi in recent days has been touring the Middle East in support of the efforts to convene the Geneva II conference. The Algerian diplomat has visited Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman and Turkey.

He had a telephone conversation Oct 26 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

According to the Russian foreign ministry, the parties agreed to continue the joint work to convene a peace conference on Syria, including during consultations in Geneva in the Russia-US-UN format, scheduled for Nov 5.

Russia is expected to be represented by its two Deputy Foreign Ministers, Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Gatilov. The American delegation will be led by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

The main obstacle to setting the date for the Geneva II conference is the Syrian opposition's unwillingness to take part in negotiations with Damascus.

Over the weekend, 22 extremist groups, which are part of or cooperate with the Free Syrian Army, announced that they would boycott the peace conference.

In another development, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, the highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, has said it is "wrong" to fight in Syria's civil war and Saudi jihadists should not go, AKI reported.

"This is all wrong, it's not obligatory," Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh said, according to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

"These are feuding factions and one should not go there. I do not advise one to go there... Going to a land that you do not know and without experience, you will be a burden to them, what they want from you is your prayer," he said.

Thousands of Saudis are believed to have headed to Syria to join the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Assad, which began in March 2011. Over 115,000 people have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict which has escalated into a bloody civil war.

Al-Sheikh also warned preachers against inciting young men to fight in Syria during their sermons, after delivering what the paper said was a lecture on "Deviation among youth" at a Saudi mosque.

Saudi Arabia has backed rebels seeking to overthrow Assad, publicly calling on the world powers to "enable" Syrians to protect themselves.

But it fears that its jihadists could return home ready to wage war on their own dynastic rulers, like Al Qaeda fighters led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden did in a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia from 2003 to 2006.

Assad and Syria's ruling elite are viewed by Saudi Arabia's puritanical Islamists as infidels because of their roots in the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.