Three years after Bahraini security forces subdued a popular uprising, the ruling family has launched a new dialogue with opponents to tackle simmering discontent; but a breakthrough remains elusive. Bahrain's fellow conservative Gulf Arab states and the West have a stake in the...

   Syria   has relinquished only 11 percent of its chemical weapons in three shipments and is on track to miss a politically-loaded midyear deadline to completely destroy the toxic stockpile, sources told Reuters on Friday. Syria  should already have handed...

Waiting among a group of evacuees from Homs for questioning by Syrian security forces, Hodwan al-Masri knew he could not hide his identity. "I am a known brigade commander, with my face all over social media," he said. Masri left the besieged city during a week-old...

Asaad Mustafa, Defence Minister of the opposition interim government has resigned today due to the lack of an active role on the ground, he said in statement delivered to the Key opposition group, National Coalition and the Interim Prime Minister Ahmed Toumeh.  The...