India, Brazil, South Africa on Peace Mission to Syria

India, Brazil and South Africa said they are launching a mission to Syria on Wednesday in a bid to halt a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests.

The governments of the three nations, under an initiative of the IBSA forum of emerging economies, are seeking to help open a dialogue between Syrian authorities and the public to help bring months of brutal violence to an end, a Brazilian foreign ministry spokesman told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"The Brazilian representative is already in Damascus, where he awaits his counterparts," and their meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem "should take place on Wednesday," the official said.

South Africa's foreign ministry confirmed on its website that it was "about to embark on a working visit to Syria, where we will join Brazil and India (IBSA) in a collective effort to further understand the situation, and to also communicate a message to the government of Syria."

In New Delhi, an official told AFP that India has sent an envoy to Syria who will meet with the violence-hit country's foreign minister along with counterparts from Brazil and South Africa.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has dispatched Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad on a regional tour to discuss the crisis.

This week he was in South Africa, where he held talks with his counterpart Ebrahim Ebrahim, who called for an inclusive dialogue which "should seek to meet the genuine aspirations of the Syrians."

On a three-day visit to India last week, Meqdad called on India not to give in to "Western propaganda" about its crackdown on protests and to help prevent a U.N. resolution.

"Tomorrow they will meet with the foreign minister of Syria together," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told AFP late on Tuesday.

The three nations are members of the so-called BRICS group of emerging countries that also includes China and Russia.