International powers who support the Syrian opposition have firmly rebuffed any idea of a presidential election organized by the Syrian government in the midst of a civil war, describing the plans as a "parody of democracy" that would kill peace talks. The Friends of Syria, an...

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has exceeded one million, in what the UN refugee agency calls a "devastating milestone" for a small country with depleted resources and brewing sectarian tension. Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of...

The response was immediate and unequivocal: Weeks after the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and mere days after popular protests spread across Egypt, Syria’s president insisted his country would not be next. Assad claimed his regime was ‘very closely linked...

Death toll in the Syrian conflict has exceeded 150,000, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , which has documented violence on the ground since peaceful protests first broke out on March 2011 before quickly evolving into a raging war. The activist group...