Lavrov to meet Kerry, Brahimi as "Friends of Syria" gather in Paris - RT News A view of a damaged street in the besieged area of Homs January 4, 2014. Reuters/Thaer Al Khalidiya As "Friends of Syria" gather in Paris in an attempt to drag the country's divided opposition into constructive talks with Bashar Assad, Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov is set to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and the leader of the Syrian coalition. Lavrov and Kerry are to set the final formalities for the Geneva-2 peace conference on Syria's plight, which is to start in ten days in Montreux, Switzerland. The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will join the negotiations. During his Paris visit, Russia's Foreign Minister is also to meet Ahmad Jarba, who was re-elected as the leader of the Syrian National Coalition of Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, a Western-backed coalition, for a second six-month term the previous Sunday. The Group of Friends of the Syrian People, or Friends of Syria, is an international collective meeting outside the UN Security Council over the Syrian crisis. Started by then French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the group by this time includes eleven core members with the US, Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia among them. The meeting in Paris scheduled for January 12-13 will be held at the ministerial level. Despite all the preparations, it remains unclear who will represent the Syrian opposition during the January-22 forum. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was vital the opposition came to the negotiating table. "I know that it is not an easy decision for the opposition in Syria," he said. We want to work to convince them today in Paris and remove the last obstacles that may arise. We must get down to work in earnest. I fear that we will not be successful if we do not manage to include the opposition in these talks. Moreover, it is still to be seen if Iran will be invited to attend the talks. This after earlier statements by the US administration that it was unlikely to happen, and Iran indignantly refuting Washington's conditions to be involved in the talks. Russia has been insisting that Tehran should be part of the process. The issue is likely to dominate discussions on Monday between Lavrov, Kerry and Brahimi. Syria is experiencing a dramatic split between the opposition factions: between the main rebel Free Syrian Army and somewhat more extremist groups, frequently Al-Qaeda-linked. In the past week alone, 700 people, including 85 civilians, were killed in the violence raging between rebel groups and an Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the UN humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, told the BBC she had heard accounts of near starvation, including in the capital, Damascus. The situation in the country is getting worse by the day, she added.