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...

An al Qaeda splinter group in  Syria  executed at least 21 people including fighters from rival rebel groups and their relatives, a monitoring group said on Friday, an incident that could worsen infighting among enemies of President Bashar al-Assad. The Islamic State...

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...