UNITED NATIONS, January 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari on Friday.

The meeting was held on the margins of the United Nations Security Council high-level meeting, a TASS correspondent reported.

Lavrov and al-Jaafari shook hands and retreated for a closed-door meeting.

On January 18-19, the Russian top diplomat took part in two meetings of the United Nations Security Council, on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and on security in Afghanistan and Central Asia. He also had a number of bilateral contacts, in particular with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, foreign ministers of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Kuwait.