Syria complains to UN about tourism downturn

Syria has complained to the United Nations that its tourism industry has been severely damaged by a 14-month conflict between government forces and rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, which has raised fears of civil war. (more…)

Putin Holds Key to Ending Syrian Bloodshed

When NATO leaders meeting in Chicago this weekend take up the continued bloodshed in Syria, their best course of action is to have a long, hard talk with Russia about what it would take to turn the United Nation’s undermanned monitors into a robust, well equipped peace-keeping force. (more…)

US leadership needed to turn the tide against Bashar al-Assad

By Joseph I. Lieberman
More than nine months after President Obama declared that Bashar al-Assad must go, it is clear that neither diplomacy nor sanctions alone will dislodge the Syrian dictator

Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun quits, update

The head of Syria’s most-recognized opposition bloc, Burhan Ghalioun, has announced that he is stepping down as leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC) after mounting criticism of his leadership. (more…)

The ‘secretive sect’ in charge of Syria

Considered by some Muslims a heretic sect, this small Levantine minority have survived persecution and the Crusades to rise to the top and take over the Syrian establishment.

Alawite practices, which are said to include celebrating Christmas and the Zoroastrian new year, are little known even to most Muslims. (more…)

Confidential report finds Iran shipping arms to Syria

A confidential U.N. report reveals Iran is exporting arms to the Syrian government in violation of a ban on weapons sales, the same day President Bashar al-Assad blamed the violence in his country on the work of foreign-backed fighters. (more…)

U.S. is in a “holding pattern ” on Syria, report

Fifteen months into the crisis in Syria, and the Obama administration is, as one U.S. official describes it, in “a holding pattern,” waiting for Russia to abandon its support for President Bashar al-Assad, waiting for sanctions to topple the economy and waiting for an organized Syrian opposition to present a coherent vision for a post-Assad Syria. (more…)

Syria’s television confessions fail to convince many

Syria’s state media is fighting hard to cast the country’s unrest as an Islamist terrorist conspiracy rather than a popular uprising against the dynastic rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

State television airs interviews with men confessing to acts of violence, sullying the image of Assad’s opponents. But the interviews are mocked by many Syrians (more…)

UN team in Syria evacuated from tense town

A team of international observers was evacuated Wednesday from a tense town in northern Syria a day after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, a U.N. spokesman said.

The team’s vehicles were struck by the blast Tuesday during a mission in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun. None of the observers was wounded, but they had to spend the night with rebel forces in the area. (more…)

Syria’s neighbors funding, arming rebels, report

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by the Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials. (more…)