Telephone service between the United Arab Emirates and Israel has begun as the two countries open diplomatic ties. Associated Press journalists in Jerusalem and Dubai were able to call each other from both landline and cellular phones Sunday. Officials in Israel and the UAE did not...

US President Donald Trump personally wrote to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad about the case of journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing since 2012, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday. "The US government has repeatedly attempted to engage Syrian officials to seek Austin's...

In May, Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf, a cousin and long-time ally of President Bashar al-Assad, took a once unimaginable step. In a video he published on social media, he lashed out against Assad's "inhumane" state security forces. "Mr President, the security forces have started attacking...

Elements of the Islamic State group are working to rebuild in western Syria, where the US has little visibility or presence, the top US commander for the Middle East warned Wednesday. In the region west of the Euphrates River where the Syrian regime is in control "conditions are as bad or...