Middle Orient

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.

The Syrian government troops have started a large-scale offensive on the northern outskirts of Damascus, after tightening the screws on rebels in the southern rim of the capital. The forces have been besieging the town of Qara in the al- Qalamoun mountains north of Damascus and near the border with

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu left for Washington on Sunday to start a two-day official visit to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments with top American officials.

Foreign ministers of the 28-member European Union are to begin later today their formal meeting with the focuss on developments in the southern Mediterranean region.

President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani concluded on Sunday his visit to Turkey during which he reached cooperation agreements with his Turkish hosts.