Syrian opposition leaders will be meeting in Qatar next week to revamp the structure of the Syrian National Council (SNC). The meeting will focus on the election of new leaders and ensuring the body is more representative of minority opposition ...

At least 43 Iraqis were killed over the weekend in a slew of bombings across the country, a sign of the continuing sectarian tensions that have also paralyzed Iraq's political system. The Islamic State of Iraq, an ...

Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, wrote an article criticizing the Bahraini regime's characterization of the opposition as a Shia monolith. Al-Khawaja says that protesters have been representative of all Bahraini demographics since the early ...

March 14 members rallied in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut to protest the bombing assassination of General Wissam al-Hassan. The group issued a statement saying, “The fall of Hassan is the ultimate proof of the fall of the Lebanese state and its ...

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Keeping Operations, Herve Ladsous, confirmed that plans are underway regarding a peacekeeping force to Syria, should the regime and the opposition agree to a cease-fire. The final decision will be contingent upon the U.N.-Arab ...

United States Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro met with senior officials in Baghdad, highlighting the "ongoing commitment to developing a long-term cooperative bilateral security relationship through training and defense trade." The meeting came ...

Two days after police used tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters in Manama, King  Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa called for a national dialogue to quell mounting tensions in the country. In an address to the ...

A Yemeni court upheld the death sentence of Mubarak Hadi al-Shabwani, prompting members of al-Shabwan tribe to blow up power lines near the Yemeni capital. The attack led to the loss of electricity throughout Sana'a, reversing progress on improving the ...

State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland explained that due to concern from Congress over the recently-announced $450 million of assistance pledged to Egypt, the State Department is "going to have to work with the Congress in the coming days ...

Reports have surfaced that an Iranian political group, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), will be removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the coming weeks. After a ...

In a press release, Acting Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department Patrick Ventrell said that the U.S. is "deeply troubled" by the upholding of sentences for nearly two dozen Bahraini opposition activists. Ventrell added that the United States "continue make ...

Last week, several U.N. human rights rapporteurs calledon the Bahraini government to "comply with the rights to peaceful assembly and expression and immediately release those arbitrarily detained for exercising their legitimate freedoms." Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret ...

A new draft abortion law in Turkey would require women to listen to the fetal heartbeat and watch a video on the procedure before finalizing their decision. The commission drafting the law at the request of Prime Minister Recep ...

The appeals verdict for prominent Bahraini human rights leader Nabeel Rajab, imprisoned after sending a tweet calling for the kingdom's prime minister to resign,  will be issued Thursday according to Rajab's lawyer. The decision had been scheduled to ...

Unknown gunmen in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi kidnapped seven Iranian members of the International Red Crescent last week shortly after their arrival in the country to help with relief work. Despite rumors that the seven would ...

Kurdish rebels with the PKK launched simultaneous attacks on three military posts in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border Sunday, killing 14 rebels, 6 soldiers, and 2 village guards. The Turkish government responded sharply by sending reinforcements and attack ...

With violence in Damascus and Aleppo rising, Syria's ambassador to the U.A.E. has defected to Qatar, following his wife, the Syrian envoy to Cyprus, who defected Tuesday. Abdelatif al-Dabbagh and Lamia al-Hariri are the second and third most senior ...