On Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Turkey’s government to respect demonstrators’ right to protest as demonstration continued across the country Wednesday for the sixth straight day. The vice president made his remarks before the American-Turkish Council: “Turkey’s future belongs to the people of Turkey and no one...

French and British officials have both announced that tests confirm the use of sarin gas by the Syrian government. France’s foreign minister appeared on French television and expressed “no doubt” over the results: “There is no doubt that it’s the regime and its accomplices” that are responsible for use of...

Hezbollah and the Syrian army have reportedly completed their takeover of the strategically critical Syrian city of Qusayr. The claim was more or less confirmed by rebel sources. In recent months the city had served as a stronghold for opposition forces battling to bring down the Bashar al-Assad regime. Rebels first...

Turkish officials have arrested dozens of people for speaking out against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter. The moves are deepening concerns which have already triggered a wave of Western criticism leveled in response to the authoritarian overtones of Ankara’s ongoing crackdown on protesters: “Polis raided 38 addresses and...

The funeral of a senior Iranian cleric on Tuesday triggered the country’s largest anti-government demonstration in years. Tens of thousands of Iranians marched against the Iranian leadership, chanted anti-regime slogans, and rallied in support of jailed opposition members: The protesters chanted slogans against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali...

Today Israel marked the 46 anniversary of the beginning of the Six Day War. The war formally began with preemptive air strikes against the air forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The armies of all three countries had mobilized and were positioned to attack Israel or suffocate it economically. The...

In addition to damanging Hezbollah’s popularity across the Middle East, the Iran-backed terror group’s support for the Syrian regime is also more directly undercutting the pretexts that it uses for usurping Lebanese sovereignty and maintaining its arsenal of tens of thousands of weapons. Hezbollah has justified its military control of...

The Lebanese army today deployed into Tripoli and vowed to impose calm on the city, which has been roiled by days of intense fighting. Fighting between forces alinged with and against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria had left at least six dead and 38 wounded. At least 29 people...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei this week ordered that the country’s next president not make any concessions to the West. None: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Tuesday that the country’s next president should avoid making “concessions” to the west, saying this would not diffuse tensions over Tehran’s nuclear drive…...

Forty-three democracy promotion activists, including 16 Americans, have been sentenced to jail by an Egyptian court after being rounded up in a government crackdown on non-governmental organizations. The Americans had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo after government raids. Washington was ultimately forced to pay $#330,000 in bail for 15...