Russian foreign minister heads to Paris

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is leaving for Paris on Sunday to discuss preparations for the Geneva-2 international conference for Syria with US Secretary of State John Kerry and the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is also planning to join the negotiators. "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Paris on January 12-13 to have a series of contacts to discuss preparations for an international peace conference on Syria to be held in Montreux," a Russian Foreign Ministry source told Russia's (Itar-Tass) News Agency. "He will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in a trilateral format on January 13," the source went on to say. The sides will set the final modalities for the forum, which is to start in Swiss Montreux on January 22.