Middle Orient News

A new group of ships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet will join the country’s Mediterranean task force within days. The task force currently includes vessels from the Pacific, Northern, Baltic and Black Sea fleets: the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev, the large amphibious landing ships Admiral Nevelsky and Alexander Shabalin, the frigate …

Russia said that a military strike on Syria could have catastrophic effects if a missile hit a small reactor near Damascus that contains radioactive uranium. The Foreign Ministry called Wednesday on the U.N. nuclear agency to urgently assess the risk as the United States considers military action to punish Syria’s government for an alleged gas attack.

The U.S. Congress should reject the use of force in Syria in order to protect regional peace, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon said Thursday. Congress must follow U.S. President Barack Obama’s “rational” policy, Ghazanfar Roknabadi said

Syrian rebels who seized an entry to a Christian town north of Damascus this week have now withdrawn to protect religious and archaeological sites there, an opposition statement said. “Free Syrian Army (FSA) units on Wednesday destroyed posts at Maalula and

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged G20 nation leaders at their summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg to find a political solution to the “unprecedented” humanitarian crisis in Syria. At a Friday morning meeting on the sidelines of the summit, the UN chief called on world leaders …

Any military operation against Syria should be thorough and aim to end the country’s vicious civil war, according to Ankara, which believes that this requires the removal of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. An intervention against Syria that is forceful and extensive enough to end the war will achieve greater legitimacy …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that a U.S. strike on Syria will be “in nobody’s interest” and nobody will benefit from it. “As the Islamic republic has already said, any (military) measure against Syria is in the disadvantage of both the region and the United States’ friends,” Rouhani said. 

France released an intelligence report on Monday alleging chemical weapons use by Syria’s regime that dovetailed with similar U.S. claims, as Syrian President Bashar Assad warned that any military strike against his country would spark an uncontrollable regional war and spread “chaos and extremism.” “The Middle East is a powder …

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has said that Iran will continue efforts to prevent a possible military action against Syria by the United States. On Wednesday that U.S. President Barack Obama had won the backing of key figures in the U.S. Congress, including Republicans, in his call for limited U.S. strikes …

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Wednesday that heis against any foreign military intervention in Syria and warned against any Lebanese involvement in the Syrian crisis. In a public speech, Suleiman expressed rejection against all scenarios that include a punitive military trike against the Syrian government for its alleged use of …