Jihadists and members of hardline Islamist groups make up almost half of forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to extracts from a British defence study published in Monday's Daily Telegraph. The analysis by defence consultancy IHS Jane's, due to be published in...

Ban Ki-moon to present report to UN Security Council on Monday after it was submitted to him by UN team. UN chemical weapons inspectors have handed their report into an alleged gas attack in Syria to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general. The report into the incident, in which more...

  There is something deeply cynical about this chemical weapons ‘timetable’ Even if it succeeds, Syrians will be left to kill each other as before - only without sarin. What on earth was going on in Washington and Geneva last week? I’m not trying to cheapen the...

Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons bargain with  Russia and the United States offers another political and military lifeline to the Syrian president, just two years after he was dismissed in Washington as a "dead man walking". The deal, reached under the shadow of threatened U.S....