(Al Arabiya- Joyce Karam)- There were no groundbreaking announcements or game changers on Syria in U.S. President Barack Obama’s “West Point” speech yesterday. But there was a shift, as Obama departed from his usual political talking points into embracing a counterterrorism approach...

(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's certain victory in an election next month, derided internationally as a charade, leaves Turkey facing a bitter truth - its assumption of his quick demise was a costly miscalculation. With al Qaeda-linked armed groups controlling...

As Islamist rebels were negotiating a merger to form the Islamic Front, their Qatari sponsors approached them with a proposal. The Qataris asked the rebel groups to issue a moderate founding statement that would make no reference to an Islamic state, in exchange for public and official...

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To protect the innocent and to defeat the Assad dictatorship, Syrians should work with Israel to create a safe haven. I spent more than a decade in Syrian prisons and therefore know what kind of regime this is. It is one which believes that torture is a form of dialogue. This was...

 As the Egyptian state presses its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the man expected to become president has deployed a new weapon in the battle with the Islamists: his own vision of Islam. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who deposed the Brotherhood's...

BEIRUT (AP) — Two years ago, it seemed almost inevitable that Syrian President Bashar Assad would be toppled. Despite a fierce military crackdown, people were still taking to the streets in exuberant anti-government protests and rebels were pressing their fight deeper into the...

Western security officials are reportedly investigating allegations that Iran supplied Chinese-made bombs filled with chlorine gas to the Syrian armed forces. The Telegraph reported that the allegations were made after satellite images emerged of a Syrian supply flight at...

By Reuters | London - War-torn Syria is struggling to buy food commodities in the quantities it needs, despite repeatedly issuing tenders for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sugar, rice and wheat, trade sources say. The sources, who have knowledge of the country’s...

The Syrian civil war is gradually altering the dynamic relationship between Hezbollah and Israel. Over the past decades, this relationship morphed from an asymmetrical confrontation between a conventional army and a sectarian militia to an ongoing conflict between a state and a...

France took the first steps this month toward proposing a Security Council resolution that would refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, amid fears that Russia may well veto such a resolution. Experts interviewed by Al Arabiya’s New York Bureau Chief Talal al-Haj this...

THE Syrian regime likes to keep up the appearance of a constitutional state rather than one run by a family cabal girded by a ruthless security apparatus. So when diplomats tried to mediate between the regime and the opposition in Geneva in February, President...

In September 2001, as the U.S. reeled from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Vladimir Putin supported Washington's imminent invasion of Afghanistan in ways that would have been inconceivable during the Cold War. He agreed that U.S. planes...

Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese party, is trying to find a balance between its large scale military involvement in the Syrian conflict and containing its repercussions inside Lebanon. The strategy has so far seen the party pursue more conciliatory policies in Beirut, as it goes on the...

Earlier today, Saudi Arabia announced that controversial prince Bandar bin Sultan had resigned as intelligence chief. According to the official Saudi Press Agency story, the unexpected royal decree stated that Bandar had been "relieved...from his post at his request" and replaced...

A “new regional balance” is a phrase you often hear among policy wonks in Washington dealing with the Middle East. On the surface, it refers to obvious new realities that have shaped the region post-Iraq war and the Arab Spring, but it also reflects the Obama administration’s mindset...

Recent statements by top Iranian officials appear to divulge the Islamic of Republic of Iran’s frustration and dissatisfaction with the Assad apparatuses’ inability to thoroughly crack down on various rebel groups and oppositional fronts, and to regain full control of the state....

Predictably, as soon as the battle for the strategic Qalamoun area in the mountainous regions between Syria and Lebanon drew to a close — with the regime gaining the upper hand — fresh fronts opened in this seemingly endless civil war. Their location, however, was quite...

Bashar al-Assad's Lebanese ally Hezbollah said his Western foes must now accept he will go on ruling Syria after fighting rebels to a standstill - a "reality" to which his foreign enemies seem increasingly resigned. Echoing recent bullish talk coming out of Damascus, Sheikh Naim...

For over three years now, the Syrian conflict has been continually punctuated with reports indicating an overall worsening of the humanitarian crisis. The world knows the situation is dire but with kidnappings rampant and various actors restricting access to besieged areas, there is...