Three people have died of suspected diphtheria in conflict-hit Yemen, doctors said on Wednesday, as the World Health Organisation and International Committee of the Red Cross warned the disease was spreading. "Currently, there is an increase in diphtheria cases, due to the poor...

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) should reconsider their opposition to joining a new “grand coalition” with Angela Merkel’s conservatives because Europe needs a stable government in Berlin, a senior ally of the chancellor said on Thursday. Germany is facing the worst political crisis of...

 Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards will play an active role in establishing a lasting “ceasefire” in crisis-hit Syria, its chief commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said, adding that disarming Lebanon’s Hezbollah was non-negotiable, state TV reported on Thursday. “Hezbollah must be armed...

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday that the recent period was a wake up call for the Lebanese with different loyalties to put their country first ahead of regional issues. “The period that passed was perhaps like a wake up call for all of us to look for Lebanon’s...

Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 99 suspects including doctors and lawyers and have so far detained 78 of them, the state-run Anadolu agency said on Thursday, as part of a widening crackdown since last year’s failed coup attempt. The suspects were believed to be users...

A tribal sheikh was assassinated late Wednesday in the city of Shibam in Yemen’s eastern Hadhramaut province, according to a senior security source. "Unknown gunmen opened fire on Sheikh Abdullah bin Amer al-Kathiri in Shibam’s Baheira district," the security source, who spoke on...

By Editor-in-Chief (Zaman Al Wasl)- One of the most tragic facts that the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad will stay in power.  One of the most brutal rulers in history who has killed half million Syrians and displaced 11 millions more will not survive accountability...

By  Jamal Khashoggi When  Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen  erupted in March 2015, there was widespread Saudi popular support for it – including by me. Like other Saudi citizens, I was concerned about Iran’s sectarian expansionist policies, as its influence has extended across the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish YPG militia arrested two commanders operating in the Front of Raqqa Revolutionaries in Raqqa province, sources told Zaman al-Wasl on Wednesday. The powerful YPG that led the US-led Syrian Democratic Forces had sidelined 'Liwa Thuwar al-Raqqa'...

Syrians in the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta are so short of food that they are eating trash, fainting from hunger and forcing their children to eat on alternate days, the UN World Food Programme said in a report on Wednesday. Since September, approximately 174,500 people in the...

Vladimir Putin called Wednesday for "concessions and compromise" from all parties in Syria's six-year conflict as he kicked off a key summit with the leaders of Turkey and Iran aimed at reviving stuttering peace negotiations. The summit with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish...

Russia’s Vladimir Putin won the backing of Turkey and Iran on Wednesday to host a Syrian peace congress, taking the central role in a major diplomatic push to finally end a civil war all but won by Moscow’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian opposition groups, meeting in Saudi...

Somalia’s government said Wednesday it had requested a U.S. air strike that killed scores of suspected militants to help pave the way for an upcoming ground offensive against Islamist group al-Shabaab. The U.S. military's Africa Command (Africom) said on Tuesday it had killed more than...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkis authorites opened a new branch of the Turkish Post Office (PTT) in al-Bab city, east of Aleppo, such a step marks more Turkish influence in opposition-held areas. According to Turkish media, PTT branch - the second branch in Syria - began to...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Head of the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change (NCC) said the real Syrian opposition will not attend any conference on Syria that calls for partition or federalism as is being done now.  Hassan Abdul Azim  assured that Sochi...

Pope Francis will meet the head of Myanmar’s army on a visit to the country and Rohingya refugees while he is in Bangladesh, both late additions to his tour of the two countries next week. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, briefing reporters on the trip, said that he would meet the head of...

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has spent the past six years fighting a brutal civil war that has killed at least 465,000 of his own people, leveled major Syrian cities like Aleppo, displaced millions of desperate civilians, and helped trigger the worst refugee crisis since World War II....

Saad al-Hariri attended independence day celebrations in Beirut on Wednesday after returning to Lebanon for the first time since resigning as prime minister in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia. Hariri, whose sudden resignation on Nov. 4 pitched Lebanon into crisis, flew into Beirut late on...

A Syrian opposition meeting began in Riyadh on Wednesday in a bid to unify the group’s position ahead of peace talks backed by the United Nations to end the country’s six-year civil war. Saudi Arabia backs the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) group whose leader, former Syrian prime...

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has landed in the capital Beirut for the first time since his resignation on Nov. 4. Hariri was expected to attend National Day celebrations in Beirut on Wednesday. Lebanon has remained in the throes of an unprecedented political crisis...