he was pointed in august 2012 after kofi annan resigned in frustration over the deadlock on syria and the security council. his efforts have focused on convening an international peace conference known as geneva 2. it its objective is to broker a political settlement between the assad regime and the syrian opposition. he has recently held a series of talks with u.s. secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister lavrov. those meetings have resulted in a plan to put syria's chemical weapons under international control. i am pleased to have our friend lakhar brahimi back at this table. welcome. >> thank you very much. good to be here. >> rose: so before he we talk about how we got here, just tell me where we are. >> i wish i knew. >> rose: if you don't, who does? sergei lavrov maybe. >> yeah, you know, we also had a meeting on friday night with the five ministers of the permanent matter of secretary you are council. >> rose: and you had about -- >> and they all agree that let's try and see if we can get this conference going by the middle of november. and they have asked me

either by negotiating transition as negotiated by kofi annan to create a governing body with full executive powers and to transition the agenda items. or there is a belief in possible military solutions. but i would say the so-called military solutions could lead to situations that are worse than the present stage with a wave of revenge against one sectarian group or the other. we hope now very much that the secretary-general and all of us involved can now focus completely with the help of member states on convening the geneva to conference in november. syria was the top concern during the opening session two weeks ago, but there were other important steps on peace and security challenges. i will give you some examples. they reported to resume negotiations between israelis and palestinians who were there with chief negotiators. in lebanon, we launched a group to deal with the syrian crisis not only on the refugee needs but the pressures on schools and infrastructure. absolutely important now to have a relationship between the humanitarian and development site. thirdly, transitions in the ar

kofi annan, when you have a job, recognized very clearly that unless some substantial concrete thingshappen on the ground, the prospect for successful negotiation is nil. he had five steps, basically, a six-point plan but the first step was to negotiations themselves. five steps that we need to be taken where d.c. region government, by virtue of the fact that it is the government would actually have to take the initiative on several things. president assad agreed to do it, and nothing ever happened. so these are the challenges i think. get on the same page as to what it is geneva is supposed to produce. and get to work on creating the conditions to make it all possible. spare let me come back to you, lord robinson, because part of the meeting, how do you go into this? what's the strength you bring into these talks? visits directly at the fact we wouldn't have a resolution if it hadn't been for the threat of the use of force. but what's the dynamic now where we've seen in your country the uk parliament balked at the idea of using force, the prospect that if president obama gone forward

we have other civil rights chronology in "africana" and and lectures by maya angelou and kofi annan quincyal colin powell. we have historic sites in africa video footage from my pbs african series and we have the african map. every african nation you on botswana and botswana lights up. go to a ready reference. go to botswana on safari. you get the ready reference summary that tells you everything you want to know about botswana. on the flag and you there and expand and you get the national anthem of every national african nation. ♪ one of the things you learn when you do this is the brilliant of the -- that did not extend to the creation of national anthems. [laughter] we have an interactive map that shows the slave trade using the scholar david else's' trade database and it maps a 12.5 million africans shipped from africa to the new world between teen 19 and 1967. only 500,000 of those came to united states. how did else's and just colleagues find them? they kept great shipping records said david else's had the brilliance to bring those people together under the auspices of the dubois ins

either by negotiating transition as negotiated by kofi annan to create a governing body with full executive powers and to items.ion the agenda belief in possible military solutions. but i would say the so-called military solutions could lead to situations that are worse than the present stage with a wave of revenge against one sectarian group or the other. we hope now very much that the secretary-general and all of us involved can now focus completely with the help of on convening the geneva to conference in november. top concern during the opening session two weeks ago, but there were other andrtant steps on peace security challenges. i will give you some examples. to resumeted negotiations between israelis and palestinians who were there with chief negotiators. in lebanon, we launched a group to deal with the syrian crisis not only on the refugee needs but the pressures on schools and infrastructure. absolutely important now to have a relationship between the humanitarian and development , transitions in the arab world, arab states came together to support the national biological in yemen

of you who follow this carefully, this will be following onto the transitional procedures, that kofi annan negotiated when he was a special envoy for syria, a joint u.s. russian project, discussed at great length by john kerry, and the russian foreign minister lavrov. i want to ask whether you think this is possible to achieve anything significant, at this conference now, and do you support this going forward? and perhaps you could also take this opportunity to discuss one of the issues that is central to this conference, how can the opposition gets strong enough, to bargain effectively at geneva, and do better on the battlefield. >> this was the problem with the first go around, it will be the problem in geneva 2. when the deal was done with the russians, it was done by two entities playing different roles in syria. what happened is a general who was trying to hold together the free syrian army, hopefully free of more radicals, not going to be the case given how things are when the deal was done with the turning in syria, they felt, so, theiregitimately legs were cut out from under them.

geneva 2 would be a follow on to the transitional procedures that kofi annan negotiated a couple of yearsago. it's a joint u.s.-russian project. it's discussed at great length by secretary kerry and love love are a. i want to ask you whether you think it is possibility to achieve anything significant at a geneva 2 conference now. in that sense, where you support it going forward. and perhaps you could also take this opportunity to does one of the issues that is central to this geneva 2 conference is how can the opposition get strong enough it can bargain effective late geneva and do better on the beaght field? >> well, this is a problem -- it was the problem with the first go around and going to be the problem in geneva 2. once the deal was done with the russians. it was done by two entities who are playing very different roles in syria. and so what happened is general -- trying to hold together what we understand as the free syrian army hopefully free of more radicals not going to be the case given the tide and how things are turning in syria. and they felt and probably legitimately so t

don't follow this carefully, geneva ii would be a follow-on to the transitional or seizures that kofi annan negotiated when he was the special representative for syria a year ago. it's a joint u.s.-russian project. it's been discussed at great length by secretary kerry and russian foreign and minister lavrov her and want to ask you, congressman rogers, whether you think it is possible to achieve anything significant at a geneva ii conference now? and innocence whether you support it going forward. and perhaps you could also take this opportunity to discuss one of the issues that's central to this geneva ii conference, which is how can the opposition get strong enough that it can bargain effectively at geneva and depend on the battlefield? >> well, this is a problem, a problem with the first go-round and it's going to be the problem in geneva ii. once the deal was done with the russians it was done by two entities who are playing very different roles in syria. and so what happened is general interest is trying to hold together what we would understand as the free syrian army hopefully free o