Syrian peace talks kicked off in Switzerland with little hope that it could override clashing stances between key players, the Syrian regime and the opposition, whose presence on the same table for the first time in almost three years resembles the highlight of the conference, according...

Syrian foreign affairs minister Walid al-Muallem’s speech at the Geneva II peace talks on Wednesday ran on for 40 minutes, instead of the allotted seven minutes that he and each delegate attending the conference is allowed. Muallem’s insistence to finish his speech...

  A government air strike killed 10 people in a rebel-held neighborhood of Syria’s main northern city Aleppo on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that some fighters of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and The...

Syria's government and its enemies came face to face on Wednesday for the first time as a peace conference began in Switzerland which world powers hope can at least start a process to end three years of civil war. There was immediate evidence of sharp differences, as U.S. Secretary...

  There can be no talk of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad staying in power; the Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba told the first day of international talks convened in Switzerland to seek peace for the Middle East country. Jarba accused Assad’s forces of supporting...

Rebels refuted rumors saying that the State of Iraq and The Levant had planted landmines in the Euphrates dam, northeast Syria. The rumors, which  have been circulated by sources associated with ISIL,  seek to undermine rebels' volition and to sow terror in the...

  Opposition militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) broke in to the Anadolu Agency (AA) office in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday, seizeing technical equipment. The AA team in Aleppo was unaffected by the incident. The group seized...

  Democratic Union Party (PYD)  declared an autonomous provincial government in the country’s northern territory on Tuesday, according to reports. The move comes ahead of the Geneva 2 peace talks, where they will not have direct representation. A municipal council will...

     The horrific new report accusing Syria's embattled regime of   torturing and killing thousands of detainees   in government custody may not be a game-changer for the   peace talks   set to open in Switzerland on Wednesday,...

  A team of internationally renowned war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts has found "direct evidence" of "systematic torture and killing" by the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the lawyers on the team say in a new report. Their report, based on...

Names of the Syrian opposition delegates to Geneva II,  the talks will take place on Wednesday in Montreux , according to Zaman Alwasl source: -       Ahmad Jarba, National Coalition President -...

A car bomb ripped through a Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least two people and setting plumes of smoke over the area in the latest attack targeting supporters of the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon. A series of attacks have hit Lebanon recently as...

A prominent doctor has been freed by assistance Douma rebels after 73 days of detention without identifying the kidnappers, according to Zaman Alwasl reporter. Activists accused Key al-Qaeda group in Syria, al-Nusra Front, of kidnapping Dr. Ahmed Salim al-Boukaei and...

The Syrian National Council (SNC), the biggest bloc in Syria’s opposition-in-exile, announced late on Monday it was quitting the umbrella Syrian National Coalition in protest over the Geneva II peace talks with the Damascus regime. By taking part in the talks, due to start on...

After being uninvited to a peace conference on Syria this week, Iran on Tuesday said the chances of the Geneva II talks succeeding without them are “not that great.” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s comments came a day after the United Nations abruptly cancelled Tehran’s...

Al Arabiya News Channel aired a video on Monday showing detained members of al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria, with some telling stories that suggest links to the Syrian regime. There has been heavy fighting between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)....

Beginning with the regime’s assault on the city of Qara situated along the Damascus-Aleppo international highway on November 19, 2013, the Qalamoun region has seen significant military developments. The opposition battalions immediately responded to the assault by targeting the...

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A group linked to al Qaeda, emboldened by its recent victory over rival rebels in Syria, has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa as it seeks to consolidate control over the region.   Reuters obtained copies of four statements...

    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday withdrew an invitation to Iran to attend a Syria peace conference this week over its refusal to back calls for a transitional government in Syria, a spokesman said. “He (Ban) continues to urge Iran to join the...