U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry started to meet with the United Nations-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi late Thursday afternoon before meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Kerry arrived before noon Thursday and was scheduled to meet with Lavrov at 7:30 p.m. (GMT 1730) to discuss Russia's proposal of putting Syria's chemical weapons under international control.

Brahimi's spokesperson Khawla Mattar said the special envoy would also meet Lavrov probably Friday morning.

But Brahimi will not join the bilateral talks as chemical weapon is not part of his mandate, according to Mattar. Endi