Middle Orient News

Lebanon is getting ready for a United Nations meeting in New York next week to discuss ways of helping Lebanon cope with huge numbers of Syrian refugees who have taken residence in the country.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani appears to want to open a dialogue with the United States and that he is willing to test whether this is the case.

Egypt partially reopened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a week after it was closed in response to a deadly attack on an Egyptian military headquarters near the frontier. Witnesses said two buses took 100 passengers into Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the main window to the world for the Gaza Strip’s …

UN chemical investigators on Monday confirmed the use of sarin nerve agent in an August 21 poison gas attack outside the Syrian capital in a long-awaited report that the United States, Britain and France said proved government forces were responsible. “This is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons …

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Monday that his country supports any move that would completely strip Syria of its stockpile of chemical weapons. However, he stressed that the international community should not act as if nothing serious is happening in Syria, even if Damascus had not used chemical weapons against …

Turkey will provide the U.N. Security Council and fellow members of the NATO military alliance with details of the circumstances of its shooting down on Monday of a Syrian helicopter, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said. Turkish warplanes shot down the Syrian Mi-17 helicopter after it violated Turkish airspace following repeated warnings, Deputy Prime Minister …

The Turkish Air Force shot down a Syrian helicopter on Sept. 16 at the border after the helicopter violated Turkish airspace, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said. Turkish military aircraft taking off from a base in Malatya shot the M-17 helicopter after it allegedly continued to violate Turkish airspace despite …

The UN Security Council is hearing reports that caches of weapons and ammunition left over from the collapse of Muammar Qadhafi’s Libyan regime are being flown and shipped into Syria.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon will on Monday present a report on Syria’s chemical weapons, increasing pressure on the Assad regime, as support grows for a US-Russian initiative to avert war. Ban will unveil the findings of a UN investigation team to the UN Security Council in New York at 11:15am …

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will visit Paris on Sept. 16 for a meeting on Syria upon an invitation by his U.S. counterpart, John Kerry. Speaking on the phone for the second time in less than 24 hours, Davutoğlu and Kerry discussed steps towards setting out a framework for the dismantling of Syria’s chemical …