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Russia's envoy to the U.N. on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process. 'Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily,' Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant newspaper, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week. 'Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this,' he said, adding that the Syrian leader's stance 'is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making.'

The United States is coming under increasingly bitter criticism for its perceived lack of leadership over Syria as the country's brutal civil conflict heads toward new levels of intensity. Washington appears unable or unwilling to prevent its ally Turkey from bombing Kurdish fighters inside Syria, its critics say. And it has done little to rein in Russia's mounting military involvement on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. President Barack Obama, at a summit in California, said "this is not a contest between me and Putin." "The real question we should be asking is what is it that Russia thinks it gains if...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday backed a call from Turkey for a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, saying it would alleviate the situation of displaced Syrians. "In the current situation it would be helpful, if there could be such an area, where none of the parties are allowed to launch aerial attacks, that is to say, a kind of no-fly zone," she told the daily Stuttgarter Zeitung, when asked about opening up such areas to host people fleeing fighting in the war-torn country. Merkel's call came on the same day that the Luftwaffe (German air force) confirmed Russian...

The Turkish military on Saturday hit targets of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Syrian regime in two separate incidents in response to incoming fire, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. In line with the rules of engagement, the armed forces shelled targets of the PYD around the town of Azaz in Aleppo province, Anatolia said, quoting a military source. The army also responded to Syrian regime fire on a Turkish military guard post in Turkey's southern Hatay region, it added. There were no further details on the nature of the Turkish strikes but they likely involved...

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that strains between Russia and the West have plunged the world into a "new Cold War". With tensions high over the lingering Ukraine conflict and Russia's backing of the Syrian regime, Medvedev said: "All that's left is an unfriendly policy of NATO against Russia". "We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War," he said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference. "Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against NATO as a whole, against Europe or against the US or...

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says if the Syrian political process fails, President Bashar al-Assad will have to be removed "by force." "I believe Bashar al-Assad is weak and I believe Bashar al-Assad is finished," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview in Munich, Germany. Saudi Arabia is prepared to contribute ground troops to the fight in Syria, but only as part of a U.S.-led coalition, he said. "Bashar al-Assad will leave - have no doubt about it. He will either leave by a political process or he will be removed by force." "We...

ISTANBUL -- Turkish media are quoting Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying his country and Saudi Arabia may launch ground operations against the Islamic State group in Syria. After taking part at a security conference in Munich, Cavusoglu said Saudi Arabia was "ready to send both jets and troops" to Turkey's Incirlik airbase. "Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation (against IS) from the land," Saturday's edition of the Yeni Safak pro-government newspaper quoted him as saying.

Further illustrating what would at least appear to be the incredible absurdity of what passes for U.S. government "foreign policy," Sunni jihadist "rebels" in Syria backed by al-Qaeda and the Obama administration have been battling against Shia militias that have also been backed by Obama. Both sides are fighting with American weapons, according to news reports. How much money U.S. taxpayers forked over to arm the two warring Islamic factions was not immediately clear. But the enormous human tragedy on the ground is getting worse quickly.The latest battle between feuding Obama-backed forces was first reported by the far-left Daily Beast,...

Secretary of state John Kerry has tonight announced a deal that will see a ceasefire in Syrian within a week following a meeting of The International Syria Support Group in Berlin. Earlier in the day, Kerry tweeted that he had spoken with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, about the need for an end to fighting in the Middle Eastern nation. However, it is unclear which of the multiple forces fighting in Syria have signed up to the ceasefire, or how it will be enforced.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned Thursday that if Arab forces entered the Syrian war, they could spark a "new world war" and urged ceasefire talks instead.

The Syrian civil war is reaching a turning point. Over the past two weeks, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seized several villages north of Aleppo, the country's largest city and one of the last remaining strongholds of Syria's nonjihadist rebels. The advance cut off Aleppo's anti-regime groups from their last remaining supply lines into Turkey, and put Assad in a position to retake a fiercely contested city that had a prewar population of over 2 million. Assad's gains have come on the backs of foreign militaries that are themselves showing signs of strain. Iran has been forced to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. says Russia's counterterrorism campaign in Syria is actually helping the Islamic State. Brett McGurk, the Obama administration's point-man for defeating the group, says a Russian-backed offensive in northern Syria is drawing local fighters away from the battle against the Islamic State, and to the front lines in the war against the Syrian government. McGurk tells the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "What Russia's doing is directly enabling ISIL."

The Syria War Will Not Be a Quagmire -- Because Putin and Assad Are Winning 02/08/2016 12:13 pm ET | Updated 15 minutes ago Alastair Crooke: Fmr. MI-6 agent; Author, 'Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution' BEIRUT -- Late in the night on Feb. 2, the news hit: "all communication and supply line[s]" between Turkey and Aleppo had been severed, according to a Elijah Magnier, a renowned Arab war correspondent with Alrai Media Group. It seems to be so: the Syrian army and allied militias, backed by Hezbollah and Russian air power, took control of a tendril of territory that...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could make his biggest gains in the country’s long civil war—and potentially tip its outcome in his favor in a matter of weeks—by wresting control of the city of Aleppo from opposition forces, two U.S. military officials told The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. If government forces are able to successfully encircle the city and hold it, and control the province around it, “the war is essentially over,” said one of the senior defense officials.

In a serious blow to the rebellion, the Syrian regime has severed the main insurgent supply line from Turkey to long-contested Aleppo, Syria’s second city. This is the culmination of several tactical regime victories against the opposition in recent weeks, largely due to Russian air support. Although some Western policy-makers (and many opposition supporters) continue to insist that Russia and its allies are sinking into a quagmire in Syria, the facts on the ground indicate that it is the insurgency and its backers who are stuck in a morass. Since the beginning of February, the regime took several towns north...

Back in October, we previewed the “promised” battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city prior to the war. By the time Russia began constructing an air base at Latakia, the city - which is immensely important both from a strategic and psychological perspective - was controlled by a hodgepodge of rebels and militants including al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, and ISIS. As we noted four months ago, if Russia and Hezbollah manage to recapture the city, it would effectively restore the Assad government in Syria even if the east of the country is still controlled by Islamic State. In many ways,...

Former Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich reportedly interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

Baku - APA. Russia could give asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he has to leave his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on January 12, according to RFE/RL. "It was surely more difficult to grant [U.S. national security contractor Edward] Snowden asylum in Russia than it would be in the case of Assad," Putin told the German tabloid Bild, referring to the American leaker of classified U.S. documents who was given asylum in Russia in 2013. Putin said it was too early to say whether Russia would have to give shelter to Assad as...

Get this. GOPe shill Michael Medved of Salem Media just opened his show with Jeb Bush as his guest. First thing Jeb says when asked about what he'd be saying in a State of the Union speech if he were President was that he'd have congress authorize a use of force to ... Wait for it. Take out Assad. Not take out IS? No, Assad. Just like Obama, and Hillary. And McCain. These guys are obsessed and cock-eyed. He would send US troops to overthrow Assad. But not The Islamic State? This is how he thinks he can gain votes...

As the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis metastasize, we need a new approach for these unfolding human tragedies. To date, the Obama administration has mostly sat on the sidelines, in part because of war fatigue, but mostly because in the crowded mix of factions fighting in Syria, there are no good actors to support. After the Pentagon's embarrassing admission that $500 million put only "four or five" Syrian opposition fighters on the ground, it is clear that it's fantasy to think we can find reliable Syrian allies who are both anti-ISIS and anti-Assad -- which is the official policy...