Two car bombs in southern Syria were responsible for the deaths of at least 12 people Friday. The attack comes at the end of a week which saw a spike in violence in the war-torn country, and just days after attacks on Aleppo University in the country’s north left 87...

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Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad has instructed his commanders to attack Israel and American targets if he is assassinated, according to rumors published in state-linked Iranian press outlets that place Assad at meetings with top commanders. Other reports, this time published in Saudi media, place Assad and his family on an offshore...

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Countries bordering Syria are feeling the effects of the country’s nearly two-year war. Actions both by the regime in Damascus and opposition forces seeking its overthrow have forced Syria’s neighbors to scramble as they work to contain blowback from the crisis. Tactics by Bashar al-Assad’s regime have created waves of...

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Syria’s Foreign Ministry is lashing out at U.N. Middle East peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for “flagrant bias,” after Brahimi told a BBC interviewer that Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was resisting the aspirations of the Syrian people. Brahimi, who was meeting in Geneva this week with senior U.S. and Russian officials, also called for political...

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NATO officials have condemned as “reckless” the renewed use of ballistic missiles by Syrian army forces battling opposition troops. The attacks come as British officials have announced that they will seek to amend a European Union weapons embargo on Syria in order to arm rebel forces. The decision is complicated...

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Representatives from Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas are in Cairo for reconciliation talks, the progress of which has been at best uneven. Resentment and sometimes open fighting has complicated efforts to bring the two groups together since a violent 2007 coup saw Hamas forces expel Fatah from the Gaza Strip....

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Despite recent rapprochement between the U.S. and Turkey, Washington is increasingly concerned over Ankara’s involvement in Iraq. Analysts note that business ties, particularly between northern Iraq and Turkey “could further push Baghdad toward Tehran.” Turkey has maintained growing trade with Iran despite U.S. and international sanctions on Iranian financial institutions that aid the...

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Two key Iranians, including the man described as Tehran’s “Spy Master” have been spending time in Egypt over the last two weeks. For three decades the two countries had no diplomatic relations, but ties have warmed considerably since the Muslim Brotherhood ascended to power in Cairo. Egypt invited Iranian spy...

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State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland has described as “detached from reality” a proposal by Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad to convene a national reconciliation conference between factions warring inside Syria. Assad made the offer in a rare televised speech, at the end of several days that saw the Syrian army halt and...

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Citing the risk of spillover from the conflict raging in Syria, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to build a security fence along the Israeli-Syrian border. Western analysts have become increasingly concerned about the degree to which Sunni-backed opposition forces have been infiltrated by hard-line Islamist elements, with the...

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