In an attempt to beat Western sanctions and halt the fall in the Syrian pound, the Assad regime – with the help of Iran, Russia, and China –  has begun conducting all of its business in rials, roubles, and renminbi.  This decision supplements other existing arrangements between...

 Chinese state media blamed Syrian government and opposition forces on Monday, in unusually specific finger pointing, for training Muslim extremists responsible for the deadliest unrest in four years in China's far-western region of Xinjiang. China  has traditionally blamed...

Troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad launched a military offensive on Saturday against rebel-held areas of Homs, the country's third-largest city and a centre of the two-year-old uprising against his rule. Activists said jets and mortars pounded rebel territory and soldiers attacked the...

Russia  is committed to arranging a peace conference on the  Syria  conflict but other countries and groups are complicating matters by trying to set preconditions, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. Lavrov, who will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry...