Middle Orient

Syria’s main opposition National Coalition opened a fresh round of talks in Istanbul Thursday, where dissidents will discuss a US-Russian proposal to bring rebels and regime officials to the negotiating table.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday discussed with visiting Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev the need for a negotiated settlement of the protracted conflict in Syria.

The “Friends of Syria” meeting kicked off here on Wednesday, with the foreign ministers of 11 countries, together with Syrian opposition, coming together as part of preparations for Geneva II Conference on Syria due in June.

Turkey’s Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazıcı announced today in a written statement that Hatay’s Yayladağı Customs gate is closed for a month. “We’re closely observing and controlling the border gates between Syria and Turkey. We’ve closed Yayladağı border gate after the sad event in

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi met with United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi at the presidential palace on Monday. According to his spokesperson, Brahimi is pleased that Egypt is restarting its quartet initiative.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he welcomed a US-Russian peace initiative to end Syria’s civil war but had no plans to resign. “To resign would be to flee,” he said on Saturday when asked if

Aiming to build up a permanent fleet in the region, Russia has sent warships from its Pacific Fleet to the Mediterranean for the first time in decades.

Turkey believes fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were behind two car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town where thousands of Syrian refugees live, officials said on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to hold talks on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the conflict in Syria amid concerns Moscow plans to deliver

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Kamel Amr has welcomed the decision by his counterparts from Russia and the United States to hold a conference on the Syrian crisis. In a statement published