U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...wants to hold the meeting of the major powers in Geneva in a final bid to get agreement on a political transition plan for Syria.
Annan has not yet officially announced the meeting, however, and the comments by Russia's U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin are the first sign that it will go ahead.
Because of the "grim" situation in Syria "we need to work even harder. What I can tell you is that Sergei Lavrov has officially accepted the invitation to come to the action group meeting in Geneva" on Saturday, Churkin told news hounds before Security Council talks on Syria.