Over the last two weeks, Obama administration officials have signaled - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not - that a worst-case scenario is emerging in Syria. Peace talks are at a virtual standstill. An emboldened President Bashar al-Assad has missed two...

Trucked exports of oil from  Iraq  to neighbouring Jordan have been halted due to deteriorating security in Anbar province where militants have overrun the city of Falluja, an oil ministry spokesman said. When the exports were halted was not clear, but Asim Jihad said the...

U.S. Ambassador to  Syria  Robert  Ford  is retiring at the end of the month, current and former U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Ford , a career foreign service officer and a fluent Arabic speaker, was instrumental in negotiating with Syrian opposition...

  Two prominent Republican senators say that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told them – along with 13 other members of a bipartisan congressional delegation – that President Barack Obama’s administration is in need of a new, more assertive, Syria policy; that...