The recent admission into hospital of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz has raised questions about the political succession in the oil-rich Gulf state. The 90-year-old ruler has been diagnosed with pneumonitis, making it necessary for hospital doctors to provide him with a tube to...

Al-Nusra Front has been a powerful player in the Syrian civil war for a long time now, and now al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria has become the dominant group in Idlib.  Earlier this month, it seized territory and weapons from rebel forces in the northwestern province. That...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Deep into its fourth year of conflict, Syria looks less and less like a state than a patchwork of warring fiefdoms, making outside powers more reluctant to intervene even as it becomes more destabilizing for the region. The...

The Syrian conflict will enter its fourth year in March 2015, but continuous Iranian support for the government of president Bashar al-Assad will ensure that his forces will carry on fighting for at least another year, according to observers. Those forces, however, no longer resemble a...