London: Britain said on Thursday it was "very likely" the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, and Turkey announced it was stepping up testing of people fleeing the Syrian civil war for traces.
US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed gratitude to Russia for its willingness to try to arrange a "Geneva two" conference to negotiate an end to the conflict, in a sign of a thawing of the long diplomatic chill between Washington and Moscow, Syria's strongest ally.
Damascus and the head of the Arab League welcomed the apparent rapprochement between the United States and Russia this week. Syrian opposition leaders are skeptical of an initiative they fear might let President Bashar al-Assad hang on to power.
Kerry, in Rome, said however a transition government would have to have the "mutual consent of both sides, which clearly means that in our judgment President Assad will not be a component of that transitional government"....
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04:06 AM, May 10, 2013
Beirut: The Syrian regime threatened on Monday to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi vowed, however, that Damascus would not use its unconventional arms against its own citizens. The announcement comes as Syria faces international isolation, a tenacious rebellion that has left at least 19,000 people dead...
06:28 PM, Jul 23, 2012
Damascus: Syria's 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold on Sunday as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions. The Red Cross statement came as UN observers gathered new details on what happened in a village where dozens were reported killed in a regime assault. After a second visit to Tremseh on Sunday, the team said Syrian...
07:56 AM, Jul 16, 2012
United Nations: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the transition of power in Yemen, saying all sides should now honour their commitments to immediately bring to an end all violence and refrain from further provocations. The political settlement agreement, signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, was an "important step for the people of Yemen in moving their country forward towards a better future," Ban's spokesperson said in a statement. In...
08:55 AM, Nov 24, 2011
London: Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has warned that Western military action against his country could cause an 'earthquake' that could create 'another Afghanistan' and burn the whole of the Middle East. His warning came hours after UN chief Ban Ki-moon asked Syria to 'immediately' end attacks on civilians, saying the violence is 'unacceptable.' Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely," Assad told the UK's Sunday Telegraph...
03:37 PM, Oct 30, 2011
Beirut: Western powers risk causing an earthquake across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed. Assad's warning came ahead of Syrian government talks on Sunday with the Arab League aimed at starting a dialogue between the government and opposition and ending violence which has escalated across Syria in recent...
07:50 AM, Oct 30, 2011
Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi remained defiant, urging his supporters to continue their strong and violent resistance. ...
08:31 AM, Sep 02, 2011
Tripoli: Muammar Gaddafi urged his supporters from hiding to fight on as Libya's new interim rulers met world leaders on Thursday to discuss reshaping a nation torn by 42 years of one-man rule and six months of civil war. "Let it be a long battle. We will fight from place to place, from town to town, from valley to valley, from mountain to mountain," Gaddafi said in a message relayed...
07:07 AM, Sep 02, 2011
West is pushing for a resolution condemning President Bashar Al Assad for a brutal crackdown on protesters. ...
09:08 PM, Aug 01, 2011
Sanaa: Supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh staged competing marches in Yemen's capital on Friday, a day after his first TV appearance in a month, highlighting the deep political rift that could tear apart this impoverished, gun-ridden nation. Saleh appeared on state TV late Thursday, a first since flying to Saudi Arabia a month ago to treat wounds sustained in an attack on his palace. The video showed...
01:32 AM, Jul 09, 2011
Amman: Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border on Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said, in a persistent military campaign to crush popular revolt. The latest assault followed another Friday of protests, which have grown in size and scope over the last three months, despite Assad's violent clampdown on public dissent. Activists said security forces shot dead 19 protesters...
11:00 PM, Jun 18, 2011
Tripoli: A NATO airstrike hit an area near Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound in the capital again on Tuesday, as military leaders voiced concerns about sustaining the operations if the alliance mission drags on. A column of gray smoke could be seen rising from the area around Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound shortly before dawn on Tuesday. The concussion from the blast was felt at a hotel where journalists stay in...
11:42 PM, Jun 14, 2011
Sanna: Further talks to resolve Yemen's political crisis have failed after the deputy to wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to speak with groups demanding he cede power immediately, opposition figures said. Saleh, forced to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered in an attack on his palace nine days ago, has withstood nearly six months of street protests and multiple diplomatic attempts to nudge him out of...
07:16 PM, Jun 12, 2011
Amman: Syrian security forces shot dead at least 44 civilians in attacks on pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted across Syria on Friday, the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights said on Saturday. Prominent rights campaigner Ammar Qurabi, who heads of the organisation, said more than half were killed in the northwest province of Idlib, where tanks deployed on Friday to crush large demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The...
08:12 AM, May 22, 2011
Washington/Amman: Syria was under growing pressure on Thursday to stop using military force against anti-government protesters after the United States slapped sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad over human rights violations. Broadening its campaign against pro-democracy rallies, Syrian tanks have been shelling a border town for days in the latest attempt to crush a revolt against Assad's 11-year rule. Western powers have condemned Assad's crackdown on two months of unrest which...
08:25 AM, May 19, 2011
Tripoli: Vandals attacked the Italian and British embassies in the Libyan capital on Sunday, hours after Muammar Gaddafi escaped a NATO missile strike that a government spokesman said killed one of his sons and three young grandchildren. Britain responded to the attack on its embassy complex in Tripoli, which left the buildings badly burned, by announcing it was expelling the Libyan ambassador to London. NATO's attack on a blast wall-ringed...
10:06 PM, May 01, 2011
Angry protesters rallied on in Syria, in what many are calling a day of rage. Several were reported killed in the brutal crack down. ...
11:34 AM, Apr 30, 2011
Tripoli: The Libyan government on Tuesday said that strongman Muammar Gaddafi was unharmed in NATO's heaviest attack on his compound as his forces bombarded the besieged western city of Misurata with rockets, giving the town no respite. A defiant Gaddafi was shown by the state television meeting people in a tent as his son Saif ul-Islam said the Libyan government would not be cowed down. "The bombing which targeted Muammar...
07:17 PM, Apr 26, 2011
Tripoli: Rebel fighters drove Muammar Gaddafi's forces to the edge of the besieged western city of Misrata on Sunday, taking control of the main hospital where government troops had been holed up, a resident said. In the fighting, Gaddafi loyalists fired dozens of rockets at Misrata on Sunday, said the resident, despite claims by the Libyan government that the army has held its fire since Friday. The resident asked to...
10:56 PM, Apr 24, 2011
Tripoli: Muammar Gaddafi rolled defiantly through the streets of Tripoli, pumping his fists as he poked through the sun roof of an SUV on Thursday, the same day that NATO airstrikes shook the city. The alliance's foreign ministers, while united in their aim to pressure the Libyan leader to go, argued at a meeting over whether to step up military operations that have so far failed to rout him. Gaddafi...
08:03 AM, Apr 15, 2011
