On Sunday, September 29, President Bashar al-Assad declared to the world, via an interview on Italian television, his resolve to clear Syria of chemical weapons - accepting a Russian-brokered deal to avert punitive U.S. action. That same morning his forces appear to have dropped...

Plans for talks to end the fighting in Syria were in jeopardy on Tuesday after the opposition refused to attend unless President Bashar al-Assad is forced from power and a furious Saudi Arabia made clear it would no longer co-operate with the United States over the civil war....

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has said that "factors are not yet in place" for peace talks despite efforts by world powers to convene a meeting next month. In an interview with on Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen television, broadcast on Monday, Assad also said he desired a third term as...