John Kerry arrives for talks on Syria deal with Russia Mr Kerry is talking with the UN special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi on Thursday afternoon before entering the negotiations in a Geneva lakeside conference hall with Mr Lavrov. A UN report next week is expected to show that the Damascus government used those weapons in deadly attacks outside the Syrian capital on August 21. Before arriving in Geneva, Mr Lavrov said he had a "concrete" plan to resolve the subsequent crisis without the US launching punitive attacks on Syria. The Russian daily Kommersant reported that the four-stage plan would begin with Syria joining the global Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Damascus would then declare its chemical weapons production and storage sites and allow OPCW inspectors to visit them, the newspaper cited the source as saying. In the fourth stage, Syria would "decide, along with the inspectors, how and by whom the chemical weapons will be destroyed," it said. Mr Kerry plans to hold at least two days of talks with Lavrov on the plan, floated by Moscow this week and rapidly accepted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. The five permanent veto-wielding powers of the UN Security Council met in New York on Wednesday to discuss the terms of a resolution. An initial French draft called for delivering an ultimatum to Assad's government to give up its chemical weapons arsenal or face punitive measures.