The balance shifted toward Islamists because we didn't support the rebels enough. And now, the U.S. is even less willing to support the rebels. The announcement of a new  Islamist "alliance  " in Syria—bringing together the largest and most influential rebel factions—is...

 The U.N. secretary-general recommended Monday that approximately 100 people from the United Nations and the world's chemical weapons watchdog agency be part of an unprecedented and dangerous joint mission to eliminate Syria's poison gas stockpile. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in...

Syria  won foreign praise on Monday for starting to destroy its chemical arsenal, although an opposition activist said the world was merely giving President Bashar al-Assad time to kill more people with conventional weapons. An official from the international mission overseeing the...

  Until a few weeks ago, Saudi Arabia was riding high. Its regional policies, based on countering revolutionary fervour and containing Iran, appeared to be bearing fruit. Egypt’s army ousted the Islamist president, to plaudits and generous funding from Riyadh; the Syrian...