The U.N. Security Council on Monday began its ministerial meeting on the Middle East by unanimously renewing the mandate of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya for a further twelve months. The meeting, chaired by British Foreign Minister William Hague, is expected to focus heavily on the crisis in Syria, where U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan failed to secure a cease-fire during his weekend visit to Damascus. Attending Monday's Security Council meeting are U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
