The Russian Navy is bolstering its strength in the Mediterranean Sea from seven to ten warships, its top commander told journalists on Friday. The guided-missile cruiser Moskva, the destroyer Smetlivy and the assault landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov are on their way to join Russia’s naval task force already stationed in …

US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov have agreed to push for an international conference aimed at ending Syria’s civil war. After meeting the UN envoy on Syria in Geneva, where they are trying to confirm a Russian plan to remove Syria’s chemical weapons and avert US military action, Mr Lavrov …

A recent opening in the standoff between the West and Syria should be seized to resolve the more than 29-month-old conflict, Speaker Nabih Berri told the new U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Thursday. Berri “stressed the importance of the available opportunity to adopt a political solution for the Syria crisis, noting that