Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed optimism Wednesday that the peace talks on the Syrian conflict they're organizing will be successful. After a meeting with Lavrov in Sweden, Kerry said, "Both of ...

In a statement, United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez expressed "deep disappointment" that the Government of Bahrain decided to cancel his visit scheduled to take place May 8-15. The Bahrain News Agency originally reported ...

A U.S.-backed proposal to require the U.N.'s observer mission in occupied Western Sahara to monitor human rights abuses has been rescinded. U.S. diplomats dropped calls to enhance the U.N'.'s observer mission to the disputed territory after ...

The Moroccan government Monday categorically rejected a proposal to allow the U.N. observer mission in the disputed Western Sahara to monitor alleged human rights abuses. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week suggested in a report to the ...

Secretary of State John Kerry announced today that he will meet with the Syrian opposition in London later this week. The list of attendees from the opposition is not yet finalized. Speaking as he departed Israel, Kerry 

Ali Aujali, Libya's ambassador to the U.S., resigned Monday evening. He did not give a reason for his departure.  Serving as former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's ambassador to the U.S. since 2009, Aujali quit that post at the onset of the ...

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, reported an increase in the degree of human rights violations in Iran. Three months away from the country's next presidential ...

Syria's National Coalition has announced it will not participate in a Friends of Syria summit in Rome next month. The group also declined invitations to visit Moscow and Washington. A spokesperson attributed the decision to concerns ...

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement Friday welcoming Yemen's upcoming National Dialogue Conference and warning of sanctions for spoilers who interfere in the Dialogue. According to the Council, these potential spoilers include former leaders, former opposition ...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday to attend an Organization of Islamic Cooperation conference. This is the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 revolution. President Mohamed Morsi met Ahmadinejad at ...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will meet Syrian opposition chief Mouaz al-Khatib Saturday to discuss U.S. concerns in the conflict, as well as humanitarian assistance and "non-lethal" support. Ben Rhodes, U.S. deputy national security adviser, said the U.S. ...

On Tuesday, Israel became the first country to ever boycott its U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) review. The council requires all U.N. member states to participate in a Universal Periodic Review every four years. Israel did not attend its scheduled ...

According to a secret State Department cable from the Consul General in Istanbul, Scott Frederic Kilner, the Syrian army may have deployed chemical weapons against civilians in Homs on December 23.  The cable to Washington comes after an investigation ...

Monday marked two years since protests began in Tunisia and sparked uprisings across the Middle East. Thousands of secular Tunisians protested the Islamist government on the revolution's anniversary, expressing frustration with unemployment, rising prices, and religious violence. Although analyses ...

Envoys from the United States, Russia, and the United Nations met on Friday to discuss a political solution to the conflict in Syria. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, and U.N. envoy ...

Photo Credit:  AFP/Bulent Kilic As part of an effort to bolster a transitional government, the Syrian National Coalition has urged the international community to recognize the opposition's right to take Syria's seats at the U.N. and Arab League, ...

The Syrian government released 2,139 prisoners in exchange for 48 Iranians held by rebel forces on Wednesday, the largest swap to occur since the beginning of the conflict. Reportedly among the released prisoners was Rima Dali, a Syrian ...

The National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB), the opposition group reportedly "tolerated" by the government, rejected President Bashar al-Assad's recent call for dialogue. The NCB, which the Free Syrian Army accuses of being "not real" and "the other ...

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed earlier this week, “Anyone who thinks that the armed opposition is capable of the military battle is very mistaken,’” referring to the conflict in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin on the ...