This piece is part of " Obama and the Middle East: Act Two ," a series of policy proposals for the president's second term by Washington Institute fellows. The Assad regime's brutal suppression of the Syrian uprising has spurred a humanitarian disaster, with the United Nations now...

Russia is to go ahead with deliveries of  anti-aircraft missiles  to the Syrian government,  the BBC reports . Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, has said the S-300 missiles were a “stabilising factor” that could dissuade “some hotheads” from joining the...

For the past year, rebel groups that took their war to  Syria 's main cities have been unable to finish what they started. Pinned down by air power and shelling that can hit them wherever they are, opposition fighters have barely advanced in Aleppo and Damascus; their gains in some areas...

  The BBC has seen video and eyewitness testimony that appears to corroborate allegations of chemical weapons' use in the Syrian town of Saraqeb. So what do we know about the alleged instances of chemical weapons use in the conflict so far? Syria's chemical weapons stocks, and the...