Internationally sponsored talks between Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime and opposition elements seeking its overthrow ended Friday without any progress and with “the key positions… still very wide apart,” according to statements made by United Nations-Arab League Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi to a Geneva press conference. The New York Times noted that Secretary...

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced Friday that nuclear talks between the P5+1 global powers and Iran will begin February 18th in Vienna. “We have agreed that we will start the talks on February 18 at the U.N. building in Vienna,” Ashton said after what she described as a “really interesting” meeting with...

The Daily Beast on Friday conveyed analysis from a new U.S. intelligence report warning that North Korea may resume its export of nuclear technology and material, noting further that “the comprehensive nuclear deal Iran is negotiating with the West could be undermined by increased Iranian cooperation with North Korea.” Citing diplomatic and intelligence...

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo declared on Thursday that U.S. proposals for a final status arrangement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were unacceptable. Abed Rabbo said he cannot accept the proposals mainly because it remains unclear when Israel would pull out of the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Kerry’s...

Roughly 800 Turkish police officers were fired or reassigned on Thursday – 500 just from Ankara, and another 274 from Turkey’s third most populous city Izmir – marking the latest in a series of anti-judiciary purges being conducted by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP has for months been locked in...

Iran’s foreign ministry on Thursday brushed aside President Barack Obama’s claim, made on Tuesday during the President’s State of the Union address, that American sanctions had coerced Iran into negotiating over its atomic program. “The delusion of sanctions having an effect on Iran’s motivation for nuclear negotiations is based on a false narration of...

The Obama administration on Thursday explicitly accused the Bashar al-Assad regime of deliberately stalling on its obligations to turn over its chemical weapons arsenal, putting the White House at risk of both domestic political fallout. Robert P. Mikulak, the U.S. ambassador to the international organization that is overseeing the collection and destruction of...

A raid on a Baghdad government building killed at least 18 people today, bringing the country’s death toll this month to to over 900 and putting Iraq on pace to exceed 2013’s death tool. Nearly 8,000 lives were claimed last year by spiraling, largely sectarian violence in Iraq. The large-scale...

Geneva II peace talks continue between the Bashar al-Assad regime, which has made Assad’s continued rule a red line, and opposition elements, who have all but conditioned the talks’ success on his removal. There are also global powers involved who are to greater and lesser extents aligned with one of...

The Swiss government yesterday fully suspended some trade bans on Iran and relaxed mandatory reporting requirements across a range of additional sectors, a day after news emerged that Iran intends to use banks in Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland to reestablish ties to the international financial system. Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday that Tehran...