The golden cupola of the Sayyida Zainab mosque glints, magnificent, against the clear sky. In the courtyard, children play amid shoes shed by their parents before they entered to pray. Only the crack of gunfire, the hissing of bullets overhead and mortar fire close by disturbs the tranquil...

  A new Association founded recently, all its members are former prisoners. Their guilt wasn't a crime but politics.   "Freemen of Tadmor Prison" - Tadmor is the Arabic name for Palmyra- is an independent social gathering combining a range of...

President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister  Tayyip Erdogan held a joint press conference on May 16, 2013. They discussed trade, security commitments in NATO, and the situation in Syria. Excerpt from the press conference: "Q My first question to you, Prime Minister. You...

  Assad is clearly looking to exploit sectarian fault lines in his favor. Months of bloodshed have heightened sectarian tensions and ripped apart communities in ways that are reminiscent of Iraq, where violence in 2006-2007 effectively turned into real attempts at sectarian...