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...

Ikea, known for its affordable flatpack furniture, is moving into new territory: refugee housing. The Swedish retailer has teamed up with the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) to develop a   flatpack shelter   that can be quickly assembled on site. Recently...

 The United States and its partners are planning a series of rapid steps to dismantle  Syria ’s chemical weapons program, a strategy that is intended to guard against backsliding by President Bashar al-Assad  and limit the time that international experts need to work in the...

Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Fayssal Mekdad, said Tuesday that his government aimed to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war by talking with a broad range of Syrians, from religious and community leaders to peaceful opposition groups, dismissing the main Western-backed exile...