WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pointed out her differences with President Barack Obama on Tuesday over his decision not to arm moderate Syrian rebels, as neighboring Iraq struggles to cope with extremist spil... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 50,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are working, often in dire conditions and for 12 hours a day, to pay for food and shelter for their families, aid organization CARE said. More than a million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon,... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An al Qaeda renegade group killed 15 Kurdish people, seven of them children, in an attack on a village in northern Syria, a monitoring group and a photographer at the scene said on Friday. The attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Leva... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The future of U.S. military ties with Egypt, curtailed after a crackdown on opponents by the army-backed leaders, will depend on the actions of the future government, the top U.S. military officer said ahead of Egyptian elections next week... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – At least 162,000 people have been killed in Syria’s three-year-old conflict, a monitoring group said on Monday, and thousands more are missing after being captured by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels trying to overthrow him. The... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Monday he will seek re-election in June, defying calls from his opponents to step aside and allow a political solution to end three years of devastating civil war stemming from protests against hi... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The head of the global chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syria’s toxic stockpile is considering launching a fact-finding mission there to investigate reports of attacks with chlorine gas, sources said. Syria became a... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian opposition activists have posted photographs and video that they say shows an improvised chlorine bomb to back up claims that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used chemical weapons in two attacks last week. Rebels and the government... More »
RIYADH (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sought to reassure Saudi King Abdullah on Friday that he would support moderate Syrian rebels and reject a bad nuclear deal with Iran, during a visit designed to allay the kingdom’s concerns that its decades-old U.S. a... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he hoped the Crimea crisis would not harm cooperation with Russia on international efforts to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government agreed to dest... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel launched air strikes on Wednesday against Syrian military sites in retaliation for a roadside bombing that wounded four of its troops, attacks that added a dangerous new dimension to Syria’s civil war. By announcing the raids, as o... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed a twin bomb attack in Beirut on Wednesday, saying such attacks would continue until Hezbollah forces withdrew from the fighting in Syria and its own fighters were released from Lebanese jai... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday a U.N. resolution on humanitarian aid access in Syria could be agreed in days if Security Council members do not try to “politicize” the issue, Interfax news agency reported. Moscow cr... More »
MOSCOW/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia denounced on Wednesday a Western-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution on humanitarian aid access in Syria as a bid to lay the groundwork for military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday a draft U.N. resolution on aid access in Syria was “detached from reality” and urged the West to refrain from what it called one-sided accusations against Damascus. Australia, Luxembourg... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The Syrian government and the opposition met face to face on Tuesday and observed a minute of silence for people killed in the three year conflict after a first round of talks last month failed to make significant progress, delegates said. “... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Syrian authorities have detained 336 men who left Homs and are still questioning most of them without direct supervision by any neutral third party, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The men, deemed to be of fighting age by the Syrian auth... More »
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – It was three in the afternoon when Lulu’s phone stopped working somewhere in east Damascus near the Air Force Intelligence building, one of Syria’s most feared security agencies. That was last November. The 30-year-old had been shopping in... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Light arms supplied by the United States are flowing to “moderate” Syrian rebel factions in the south of the country and U.S. funding for months of further deliveries has been approved by Congress, according U.S. and European security of... More »
ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on militant rebel factions in Syria to stop fighting each other and set up a judicial committee to sort out their differences, according to an audio recording released on Islamist websites. The smal... More »
MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) – Syria’s government and opposition, meeting for the first time, vented their mutual hostility on Wednesday but a U.N. mediator said the enemies may be ready to discuss prisoner swaps, local ceasefires and humanitarian aid. Russ... More »
UNITED NATIONS/ANKARA (Reuters) – An unexpected last-minute U.N. invitation for Iran to attend a peace conference on Syria threw the talks into doubt on Monday, with the Syrian opposition saying it would pull out unless Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon withdraws ... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s main opposition body, the National Coalition, will not attend peace talks in Switzerland scheduled for this week unless the United Nations retracts its invitation to Iran by 1900 GMT (14:00 PM EST) on Monday, a senior coalition mem... More »
ROME (Reuters) – The removal and destruction of the most dangerous agents in Syria’s chemical arsenal may not be completed until the end of June because of logistical and security problems, the head of the U.N. chemicals watchdog said on Thursday. The destruct... More »
HERMEL, Lebanon (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed three people in a Hezbollah stronghold on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria on Thursday, the latest sign of the Syrian civil war’s creeping impact on its small Mediterranean neighbor. The blast came as... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claimed credit on Wednesday for hacking into the social media accounts of Internet calling service Skype. The group also posted t... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday his group would shun a planned peace conference in Switzerland in January and would pursue its fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad regardless. General Salim Idriss’s sta... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The six largest Islamist rebel factions in Syria declared a new Islamic Front on Friday, forming the largest alliance of opposition fighters yet in the 2-1/2-year conflict. Syria’s fractious rebel forces have tried many times to unify their ... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Western states must persuade the Syrian opposition to attend talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government which he said should take place as soon as possible. Russia, which... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad discussed plans for a peace conference and progress in the elimination of chemical weapons during a telephone call on Thursday, the Kremlin said. It gave few details but said... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Shi’ite militants from Hezbollah will keep fighting in Syria’s civil war alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces as long as necessary, the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday. Hezbollah has helped turn the tide in As... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s Western-backed opposition agreed on Monday to attend planned peace talks in Geneva but said President Bashar al-Assad could play no part in a transitional government aimed at ending the 2-1/2-year-old civil war. The Syrian National... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab states formally endorsed proposed peace talks to end the Syrian civil war that have been delayed by disputes between world powers and divisions among the opposition. A final communiqué after an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign mi... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey and Iran said on Friday they had common concerns about the increasingly sectarian nature of Syria’s civil war, signaling a thaw in a key Middle Eastern relationship strained by stark differences over the conflict. Iran has been a st... More »
(This story was reported by a visiting journalist whose name has been withheld for security reasons) DAMASCUS (Reuters) – One Syrian security official called it the “Starvation Until Submission Campaign”, blocking food and medicine from entering and people fro... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – With the world tantalizingly close to wiping out polio, conflict in Syria has allowed the crippling disease to take hold again, putting at risk the rest of the region as well as plans for global eradication. War, unrest and poverty have ofte... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – From Saudi Arabia to Israel, traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East are beginning to ask: Is America turning its back on us? President Barack Obama’s diplomatic overtures to old foe Iran and his last-minute refusal to attack Syria ha... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – In a small park on the edge of old Istanbul’s Eminonu square, women sit begging, Syrian passports in their outstretched hands, “Please help in the name of God” on sheets of paper at their feet. In this bustling city, where fisherman line t... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian authorities have released 10 women jailed for helping the opposition, the first batch of 126 women expected to be freed in the final stages of a three-way hostage swap, activists said on Wednesday, The women’s release was the main dem... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemicals weapon arsenal, it set to win the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said. Set up in 1997... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels killed at least 190 civilians and took more than 200 hostage during an offensive in Latakia province in August, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, in what it calls the first evidence of crimes against humanity by opposition for... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Syrian officials have been constructive and cooperative in the early stages of the program to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, the head of the Hague-based global chemical weapons watchdog said on Wednesday. Ahmet Uzumcu, director... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Over half of the people surveyed in an international Reuters/Ipsos poll are opposed to foreign military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and more are against their own countries intervening in the conflict. The poll, conducted... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria won foreign praise on Monday for starting to destroy its chemical arsenal, although an opposition activist said the world was merely giving President Bashar al-Assad time to kill more people with conventional weapons. An official from ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama may discuss the Syria crisis on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next week in Bali, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday. “It would be rather logical to meet (Obama) in Bali,... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia expressed doubt on Tuesday that Western nations can persuade Syrian opposition representatives to take part in an international peace conference in time for it to take place in mid-November. The doubts of Damascus’s most important all... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does not threaten military force if it fails to c... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France has cleared the use of frozen Syrian bank assets to fund the export of food to the country as part of a European Union system that allows such funds to be used for humanitarian ends, a spokeswoman at the French trade ministry said. The... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hundreds of rebels have pledged allegiance to al Qaeda-affiliated forces in northern and eastern Syria, activists and Islamist sources said on Friday, strengthening the group’s control in the region. Not only individual fighters, but entire ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia denounced U.N. investigators’ findings on a poison gas attack in Syria as preconceived and tainted by politics on Wednesday, stepping up its criticism of a report Western nations said proved President Bashar al-Assad’s forces were res... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian warplanes struck rebel-held areas and clashes between militants and government forces continued unabated on Wednesday, residents and opposition groups said, while key powers met to forge a deal that would eliminate Syrian chemical wea... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A majority of Europeans and Americans strongly oppose their countries intervening militarily in Syria’s 30-month-old civil war, according to a transatlantic poll published on Wednesday. “Transatlantic Trends”, an annual survey of public op... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Hardline Syrian rebels and foreign fighters invoking jihad, or holy war, have stepped up killings, executions and other abuses in the north since July, U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday. There were now a number of brigades made ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday it may be time to consider efforts to force foes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend an international peace conference instead of just urging them to do so. Lavrov also accused ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama disclosed in a television interview broadcast on Sunday that he had exchanged letters with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and said diplomacy on Syria, backed up by a military threat, is a potential model for ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday that Syria will be held to account if it fails to live up to its promises to surrender chemical weapons as he faced questions about how a deal brokered by U.S. and Russian diplomats would be enfor... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will mark the five-year anniversary of the U.S. financial crisis on Monday in an effort to move back to his domestic agenda after weeks of dealing with Syria. When Wall Street came to a near collapse in 2008, the r... More »
GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia and the United States agreed on Friday to push again for an international conference aimed at ending Syria’s civil war as talks on removing chemical weapons raised hopes for broader negotiations. After a further meeting Geneva ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from Russia to take away Syria’s chemical weapons, but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed. Faced wit... More »
WASHINGTON/AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria accepted a Russian proposal on Tuesday to give up chemical weapons but U.S. President Barack Obama said it was too early to tell if the initiative would succeed and he vowed to keep military forces at the ready to strike if d... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – An initial French draft U.N. Security Council resolution would demand that Syria make a complete declaration of its chemical weapons program within 15 days and immediately open all related sites to U.N. inspectors or face possible pu... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House efforts to convince the U.S. Congress to back military action against Syria are not only failing, they seem to be stiffening the opposition. That was the assessment on Sunday, not of an opponent but of an early and ardent Rep... More »
WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied that he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, as the White House on Sunday pressed ahead with the uphill effort of persuading Congress to approve a military strike to pu... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A weakened al-Qaeda has the potential for resurgence in Syria, where the turmoil of civil war could help revive one of the group’s close affiliates, a report by a U.S. think tank said on Monday. “It is too soon to predict the long-term t... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The United States left the door open on Sunday to seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution that could endorse punishing Syria for a chemical weapons attack last month and indicated Arab countries were seeking a tough response. Spe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House pressed its case on Sunday for military action in Syria but faced an uphill fight in Congress, where several prominent lawmakers said they have not been persuaded to approve strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assa... More »
VILNIUS/PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union blamed the Syrian government on Saturday for an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria but urged waiting for a report from U.N. weapons inspectors before any U.S.-led military response. The carefully worded mess... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama appealed on Saturday to a dubious American public to back his bid to use military force in Syria while supporters scrambled to persuade lawmakers to authorize the move. Fresh from a European trip in which he failed... More »
VILNIUS (Reuters) – France, which backs military action to punish Syria for a deadly chemical weapons attack, tried to rally support from its European Union partners on Friday but met scepticism from governments wary of turning their backs on the United Nation... More »
MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin offered a glimpse of international compromise over Syria on Wednesday, declining to entirely rule out Russian backing for military action as he prepared to host a summit of world leaders. As the United States ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday he believed the Syrian government would use chemical weapons against its own people again if the United States stepped back from taking military action against it. When asked by an oppos... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were little changed Wednesday as a Western military strike against Syria appeared more likely, though a decision over it remained several days away. The odds for military action had appeared to ebb over the weekend... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress, which votes largely along party lines on most issues, is displaying a different kind of split in the debate over Syria: Experienced lawmakers who support President Barack Obama’s plans for military action are lining up... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry briefly opened the door on Tuesday to authorizing U.S. ground troops in Syria, but quickly slammed it shut and told Congress that any resolution approving military force would prohibit “boots on the ground.”... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has failed so far to convince most Americans that the United States should launch a limited military strike against Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government, a Reuters/Ipsos... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s efforts to persuade the U.S. Congress to back his plan to attack Syria were met with skepticism on Monday from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party who expressed concern the United States would be dragged into a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After putting a decision to launch military strikes on Syria into the hands of Congress, President Barack Obama is doing what his critics have long accused him of failing to do: reaching out, personally and aggressively, to lawmakers on ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers began work on Monday on their version of an authorization of the use of military force in Syria, worrying that President Barack Obama’s draft could open the door to possible use of ground troops or eventual attacks on othe... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Never mind the euro crisis or the war in Syria – what seems to have generated most comment among Germans who tuned in to a live TV debate between Angela Merkel and her election rival Peer Steinbrueck is the German chancellor’s necklace. The ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s government should not bow to calls from opposition figures to have lawmakers vote on whether to take military action in Syria, the senior government Socialist who heads parliament’s foreign affairs committee said on Monday. President... More »
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Syria hailed a “historic American retreat” on Sunday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military response to last month’s chemical weapons attack near Damascus until after a c... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and his top aides launched a full-scale political offensive on Sunday to persuade a skeptical Congress to approve a military strike against Syria, but faced a struggle to win over lawmakers from both parties and a ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading west toward the Red Sea to help support a limited U.S. strike on Syria, if needed, defense officials said on Sunday. The Nimitz carrier strik... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When the Senate takes up whether to back White House plans to attack Syria, there may be few more effective or passionate lobbyists for the administration than Secretary of State John Kerry, who was a member of that exclusive club for 28... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Friday it still backed action to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government for an apparent poison gas attack on civilians, despite a British parliamentary vote against it. An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin,... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said there should be no rush to force U.N. Security Council action against Syria until a probe by U.N. experts into suspected chemical weapons use is complete. In remarks reported by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday, Foreign ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The worsening Syria conflict has exposed an uncomfortable truth behind China’s cherished policy of non-interference: Beijing cannot do much to influence events even if it wanted to. With weak and untested military forces unable to project p... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Concerns that probable military strikes by Western powers against Syria could cause upheaval in the Middle East pushed oil up by over $2 a barrel on Wednesday, sent world shares lower for a second day and extended a rout in emerging markets.... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – U.N. chemical weapons investigators crossed Syria’s front line into rebel-held territory on Wednesday for a second visit to the scene of a poison gas attack that has triggered Western plans for war. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Europe... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Media companies, including the New York Times, Twitter and the Huffington Post, lost control of some of their websites Tuesday after hackers supporting the Syrian government breached the Australian Internet company that manages many m... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Most Americans want no part of a U.S. military intervention in Syria, but there is a growing sense in Washington that President Barack Obama would face more political risks from a weak response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons than fro... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama spoke with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday about possible international responses to the Syrian crisis while his national security adviser discussed Syria and security with Israeli officials, the Whi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State John Kerry laid the groundwork on Monday for possible military action against the Syrian government over a chemical weapons attack, implicating President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in a “moral obscenity.” In the most for... More »
AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of launching a nerve gas attack on rebel-held districts near Damascus on Wednesday that they said killed more than 200 people. Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the sub... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia wants a Syria peace conference to be held as soon as possible but it is unlikely to go ahead before October because there is a busy diplomatic schedule before then, a Russian diplomat said on Tuesday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister G... More »
(This story was reported by a visiting journalist whose name has been withheld for security reasons) HOULA, Syria (Reuters) – The dark, murky waters of Houla Lake erupt daily when struck by the bombs of Syrian fighter jets and shells fired from the surrounding... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. envoy to Syria Robert Ford is being considered as Washington’s next ambassador to Cairo, sources familiar with internal discussions said on Sunday as U.S. and European mediators sought a peaceful resolution to Egypt’s crisis.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After causing weeks of embarrassment for the U.S. intelligence community, the Edward Snowden saga has now cast a shadow over international efforts to end the Syrian civil war and deal with Iran, and could also undermine White House hopes... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday he was confident of victory against rebels and made a symbolic visit to a town once overrun by insurgents and now mostly retaken by his army. But Assad’s forces took a blow in the central cit... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria “as soon as possible” to investigate claims of chemical weapons use during the country’s civil war after President Bashar al-Assad’s government granted access to three sites, the United Nations sa... More »
