Middle Orient News

The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group says it has sent a delegation to Geneva for consultations ahead of proposed peace talks.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is to meet with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on Friday in Sofia.

Bulgaria is to receive next week technical and financial assistance from the EU for coping with the refugee situation. The information about the upcoming assistance was provided after a Thursday meeting between EU Humanitarian

The Syrian troops on Friday killed 54 rebel fighters of al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in southern and northern parts of the country, when another al-Qaida-affiliated group captured a border town, reports said. The army killed 20 fighters, including some leaders, of the Nusra Front by shelling rebel-held Hraitan town in the …

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal called Wednesday on Arab and African nations to pressure the U.N. Security Council to act on Syria, urging them to help save “what remains” of the country.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will pay a two-day official visit to St. Petersburg starting today to attend a Turkish-Russian High-Level Cooperation Council with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the ongoing crisis in Syria will likely be the main item on his agenda.

Bulgaria’s President Rosen Plevneliev is calling the Consultative Council for National Security for a sitting on Wednesday, November 20. The formal and somewhat abstract title of the meeting is “Current Risks and Threats for National Security” and state institutions’ readiness to meet them.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the US will continue to provide two Patriot missile batteries in Turkey for another year as part of that country’s air defenses while the civil war rages on in Syria. Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog says Hagel met with Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, on Monday …

Lebanese officials condemned the deadly bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut Tuesday and stressed the need to distance the country from regional turmoil. “We condemn this cowardly terrorist act which is aimed at inciting tensions in Lebanon and using the country as an arena to send political messages,” said caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

At least 7 people have been killed in the Lebanese capital Beirut in two large explosions, seemingly targeted at the Iranian embassy. Local authorities have revealed that the Iranian Ambassador is safe.