(Zaman Al Wasl)- Rebels are pressing slow advances in the ongoing Sheikh Miskeen battles in the southern Daraa province, senior commander told Zaman al-Wasl Tuesday. Fauzi al-Nassar, commander of al-Sanamayn Martyrs Brigade, said rebels have achieved progress  in the surrounding district...

A fact-finding mission of the global anti-chemical weapons watchdog has found indications that some people in Syria were exposed to deadly sarin gas, or a compound like it, according to a report the United Nations released on Monday. The findings come in the latest monthly...

The United Nations worked quickly on Monday to salvage fragile international bids to broker peace in Syria and Yemen from a spillover of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh's decision to cut off ties with Tehran. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told...

Real Madrid sacked coach Rafael Benitez after just seven months in charge on Monday with club legend Zinedine Zidane replacing the Spaniard. "We have taken the difficult decision to rescind the contract of Rafael Benitez as coach," said Madrid president Florentino Perez. "The...

The U.N. peace envoy for Syria was traveling to Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of a visit to Iran for talks aimed at defusing tensions between the two regional heavyweights, the U.N. spokesman said. Staffan de Mistura was due to arrive in Riyadh later Monday amid fears that the furore over the...

Iran's supreme leader said Monday the United States was seeking to influence next month's elections in the Islamic republic but said such efforts would receive a "punch in the mouth." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments related to parliamentary polls and a ballot for the Assembly of Experts, a...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A group of female activists in the rebel-held town of Douma northeast the capital has launched a campaign shedding the light on the deteriorating situation of education in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs where thousands of children have no education. "I Have The Rights To Learn"...

(Reuters)- Bahraini police Monday fired tear gas and birdshot at protesters demonstrating against the execution of a top Shiite cleric in neighboring Saudi Arabia, witnesses said. The standoff in the village of al-Daih, west of the capital Manama, was the latest of several protests...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- 26 Syrian armed opposition groups, in statement issued Monday, said it endorse and support the Saudi Arabia's step in cutting diplomatic ties with Iran amid rising sectarian tensions sparked by the Saudis' decision to execute a leading Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The...

Attacks on diplomatic missions can never be a legal means of protest, Russia said on Monday, after Iranian demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest at Riyadh’s execution of a senior Shiite cleric. Russia’s foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” about the worsening...

Sudan has decided to expel Iran’s ambassador from Khartoum after Saudi Arabia and Bahrain severed ties with the Islamic republic, Al Arabiya News Channel reported. Sudan also denounced Iran’s interference in the region. On late Sunday, Saudi Arabia announced that it would ties with Iran after...

At least two Sunni Muslim mosques have been attacked in Iraq in apparent retaliation for the execution of a senior Shiite cleric in Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, officials and police said on Monday. The interior ministry in Baghdad confirmed the attacks late Sunday in Hilla, around 100 km (60...

Unnamed Americans have contacted Iran for a deal to swap Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, convicted and jailed in Iran on spying charges, for other unspecified detainees, according to a senior Iranian official quoted on Sunday. "Some Americans contact us sometimes,...

The head of the Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) will visit China this week, as Beijing seeks to deepen ties with all sides in the conflict to help bring about a peaceful resolution. SNC president Khaled Khoja will be in China from Tuesday to Friday will meet Chinese...

Saudi Arabia used an attack on its embassy in Tehran as a pretext to fuel tensions, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday in response to Riyadh's severing of relations, adding that Tehran was committed to protecting foreign diplomatic missions. Iranian protesters had stormed...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- About 40,000 Syrian people have been left for death of hunger in the mountainous town of Madaya near Damascus for over six months due to the regime's suffocating siege, local activists and footage showed. Two people reported killed on Sunday by Hezbollah fighters during...

(Al Arabiya)- Saudi Arabia announced late Sunday that it would officially sever ties with Iran after having two of its diplomatic posts attacked in the Islamic republic. Saudi’s Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, speaking in an address aired by Al Arabiya News Channel, said Iran’s diplomatic...

A social network account of Russia's communications minister was temporarily blocked on Sunday in a cyberattack carried out by hackers presenting themselves as a Turkish activist group and parading images of a warplane and Turkish flags. Russia's ties with Turkey suffered a severe blow when...

A Syrian insurgent group said Sunday it was pulling out of a coalition of Islamist factions operating in the northwest of the country, in order to redeploy around Aleppo where pro-government forces have intensified assaults in recent months. Since Russia's intervention in the Syria conflict...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian rebels on Sunday have thwarted Sunday a regime army attack on the western neighborhoods of Daraya town south of the capital, local media center said. For over a weeks, Syrian Republican Guards and notorious Division 4 have intensified siege on Moadamiya town and...