Middle Orient

The Obama administration’s longtime sceptics of a Syria strike have reversed their position, defense secretary Chuck Hagel testified to the Senate on Tuesday. Hagel, a former senator and a Vietnam combat veteran, put aside his previous hesitations about another entanglement in the Middle East and told the Senate foreign relations …

French President Francois Hollande says European leaders will meet in the coming days, on the sidelines of the G20 summit to be held Thursday and Friday in St. Petersburg, to discuss Syria. Hollande did not rule out a vote on

Syrian forces seized the strategic northern town of Ariha on Tuesday, an opposition group said, in a move that would open the supply line between the coastal stronghold and pockets of army control in a region that is largely rebel controlled.

“Up to present the number of the refugees from Syria runs to 1,400,” said Bulgarian Minister of Interior Affairs Tsvetlin Yovchev said at a briefing. Minister Yovchev is head of the National

Israel’s Defense Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday admitting to have successfully tested an ” Ankor” target missile in the Mediterranean Sea, following a Russian report of two ballistic missiles launched in the area.

Russia on Tuesday announced that its missile early warning system had detected the launch of two missiles from the central part of the Mediterranean Sea fired towards the Sea’s eastern coastline.

More than two million Syrians have now fled their war-ravaged country, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, lamenting the nearly 10-fold increase from a year ago. “Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs,” the UNHCR said in …

The White House battled Monday for congressional authorization to bomb Syria, as two top Republicans warned that a “no” vote after President Barack Obama had threatened action would be catastrophic.

Turkish Minister of European Union (EU) Affairs and Chief Negotiator, Egemen Bagis, said that the decision on a possible international military attack against Syria would be concretised after the G-20 summit in Saint Petersburg on September 5-6. “It is possible for the efforts of the leaders of the G-20 countries …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says an international response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria is unlikely. However, she added, the “slightest chance” to arrive at such a response must be used.