For Vladimir Putin, Russia's military build-up in Syria is a potential diplomatic trump card and a handy way of diverting attention from Ukraine's frozen conflict. But it was a panicky realization that the Syrian government was being turned over on the battlefield that tipped the...

While the desperate flight of Syrians from their country's war was dominating news bulletins this summer, yet another diplomatic push to end the four-year-old conflict was quietly running into the sand. That largely unnoticed failure has reinforced the view amongst Syria experts...

Libya's official government is struggling to woo oil majors in a bid to control oil revenue and force a rival Tripoli government into a U.N. peace deal because foreign clients are wary of breaking with the established state energy firm in the capital. The battle over Libya's oil resources...

International diplomacy efforts to find a political solution in Syria have yet to bear fruit as the civil war in the country entered its fifth year in March 2015. In an attempt to find common ground with other countries pursuing contrary policies, and as one of the leading actors in this...

The first visit of a top Syrian official to a Gulf Arab state in more than four years is the strongest sign yet of a new diplomatic push to end the Syrian war, but there are still huge hurdles to face before any peace process can begin. Diplomacy has so far been a total failure...

US Secretary of State John Kerry sought to assure Middle East allies that the Iran nuclear deal would make them safer, as he began a regional tour in the Egyptian capital on Sunday. Kerry met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to patch up troubled relations between the two countries with a...

Momentum that has swept Syrian rebels to a series of swift victories over President Bashar Assad appears to have slowed in two major attacks aimed at capturing the cities of Aleppo in the north and Deraa in the south. The reasons include a determined military effort by the government and its...

(Reuters)-   The latest series of WikiLeaks cables have once again embarrassed the Saudi government and forced it on to the diplomatic defensive. The cables, over half a million documents said to have come from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, contain titillating details about how Riyadh...

 By Menekse Toyay  The military agreement signed by Turkey and Qatar in December, whose details became public this month, has symbolic and material implications for security in the Gulf region. Some experts say the impetus behind the agreement were the conflicts in Iraq, Syria,...

The United States and its allies are weighing the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under growing military pressure, may soon narrow his focus on defense of more limited areas of the country, the top U.S. general said on Wednesday. Losses in the north, east and south have put...

Steady advances by insurgents on key fronts in Syria mean President Bashar al-Assad is under more military pressure than at any point in the four-year-old war. Losses in the north, east and south to groups including al Qaeda's Syrian arm and Islamic State may test Assad's hold...

Almost a year after Islamic State's shock capture of Mosul, Iraq's second city, the black flags of the jihadis have been raised over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, seat of Iraq’s increasingly theoretical central government. Nobody talks of Mosul or recapturing it...

When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dispatched fighter jets this year against Islamic State targets in Libya in retaliation for the beheading of 21 Copts, he sent a powerful message to his country's Christian minority. Copts have long complained of discrimination under...

When Lebanon's Hezbollah first joined Syria's war on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, its role was a closely guarded secret. Today, as Hezbollah plants its flag in land won from rebels north of Damascus, its role could hardly be more public. And for Syria's increasingly embattled...

While hosting the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Washington and at Camp David this week, President Barack Obama faces a hard sell: assuring the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia that the United States has an Iran policy that encompasses their...

The Saudi king's absence from a regional summit to be hosted by President Barack Obama shows how Gulf states, displeased by what they see as U.S. indifference to Iranian meddling in the Arab world, may hesitate to bless any nuclear deal with Tehran. Analysts and diplomats in...

(Reuters) - Hardline Islamists fighting side-by-side with groups backed by the United States have made gains in northern Syria in recent weeks while showing rare unity, which some fear may be short-lived. An Islamist alliance calling itself Army of Fatah, a reference to the...

When the late King Abdullah appointed his half-brother, Moqren bin Abdul Aziz, as deputy crown prince last year, he added an unusual rider. The decree stated: “Nobody can change this decision”. Well, his successor King Salman just has. I wrote at the time of the decree : “ There...

Hundreds of Syrian rebels are approaching the start of U.S. training to battle Islamic State, without knowing whether or how Washington would come to their aid on the battlefield and as other rebel leaders say the proxy army could spark opposition infighting. The U.S. plan to train and...

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially announced the end of its "Decisive Storm" operation in Yemen and the beginning of a new operation, given the optimistic name "Renewal of Hope". The decision comes after weeks of air strikes targeting key military bases, military supply capabilities,...