Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that his regim’s ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria after an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal but he expected it to happen gradually. In a state television interview Assad also said...

Lebanese banks opened to customers on Friday for the first time in two weeks following an unprecedented wave of protests that led the prime minister to resign, with small numbers of customers queuing as the doors opened.  At a branch of Blom Bank, one of Lebanon's biggest banks, in...

By claiming a right to Syria's oil, President Donald Trump has added more complexity — as well as additional U.S. forces and time — to an American military mission he has twice declared he was ending so the troops could come home. Extending the mission to secure eastern Syria's...

Syria's government and opposition have delicately sat down for their first face-to-face talks, amid the hopes of millions of Syrians and governments from Washington to Moscow that they could become a step toward ending the country's devastating 8 ½-year war. It could be a chance for peace, or...