Iraq is going to break up.  It is already happening, but no one wants to acknowledge it because no one wants to be perceived as being responsible for the disintegration of a major Middle Eastern country .   There is not much about the...

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Damascus on Monday, as part of the next leg of his regional tour to garner support for a peace conference on Syria. Brahimi flew in to Beirut from Tehran and was to travel overland to Damascus the same day, making his first visit to...

UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi flew in to Beirut on Monday on his way to Damascus to try to whip up support for a peace conference on Syria, airport sources said.   Brahimi arrived from Tehran, where he said it was "necessary" for Iran, a key ally of the Damascus...

Syria has never had a large Shiite population, but in recent years there has been an increase in conversions to Shiism within Syria’s Sunni, Ismaili, and Alawite populations. The geographical proximity of Iran to Syria has always led to a certain degree of Iranian influence there,...