Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will absolutely not allow armed confrontation between Russia and the US, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RIA Novosti in an interview. “Speaking about risks of a military confrontation, I am 100 percent sure that [both the US and Russian] militaries won’t allow this, and of course neither will President […]

(ANKARA) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan caught Turkey off guard on Wednesday by calling early elections for June, in a move that could cement his grip on power a year ahead of schedule. Erdogan announced that parliamentary and presidential elections, originally scheduled for November 2019 will now be held June 24, meaning that a new […]

“The Iranian octopus is trying to strangle us and break our spirit,” a key member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet warned. TEL AVIV — Israel has reportedly canceled plans to send warplanes to a joint military exercise with the U.S. amid concern over the buildup of Iranian forces across the border in Syria. The decision not […]

Russia blocking access to Telegram  after the messaging app refused to give it access to encrypted messages has picked up an unintended casualty: we’re now up to over 15 million IP addresses from Amazon and Google getting shut down by the regulators in the process, taking various other (non-Telegram) services down with it. Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov earlier today said that […]

SANTA CLARA/HAVANA, Cuba  – The man likely to become Cuba’s next president is from a younger generation of leaders and has advocated modernizing the island but he is also a longtime Communist Party apparatchik who is not expected to push for sweeping political change. Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57-year-old first vice president, is expected to be named […]

PARIS — France persuaded President Donald Trump to stay in Syriaand launch airstrikes as punishment for an alleged chemical weapons attack, French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday. “Ten days ago President Trump wanted the United States of America to withdraw from Syria. We convinced him to remain,” Macron said on BFM television. He also said that France convinced […]

BEIRUT (AP) — The latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local): 2:05 a.m. Syrian state-run television says Syria’s air defenses have confronted a new “aggression,” shooting down missiles over the area of Homs in the country’s center. It did not elaborate or say who carried out the airstrikes early Tuesday. The Syrian Central Media […]

Jacqueline Furnari, Brunson’s daughter, told NBC News her family is happy the case is moving forward but is concerned it could drag on further. “I’m not sure exactly why my dad was chosen,” she said. “He’s a pawn in a political game between Turkey and the U.S.” Furnari, who has not seen her father since […]

DAMASCUS/THE HAGUE  – The United States accused Russia on Monday of blocking international inspectors from reaching the site of a suspected poison gas attack in Syria and said Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground. Moscow denied the charge and blamed delays on retaliatory U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria at the […]

Two prominent Iranian diaspora opposition groups welcomed Saturday’s U.S.-led air strikes on Syrian chemical weapons facilities, saying the operation will help save lives in Syria’s civil war. Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) political director Majid Sadeghpour told VOA Persian via Skype that the U.S. and its allies should go further with their military action […]