In interview, Syria’s Assad says he will not step down, voices skepticism on peace talks

BEIRUT — In a rare interview published Saturday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed doubt about the likely success of planned peace talks between his government and opposition forces and said he has no intention of stepping down. Read full article >>

U.N. chief, in Russia, talks up Syria peace conference

MOSCOW — As Russian warships from the Pacific, Black Sea, Northern and Baltic fleets steamed toward a rendezvous in the eastern Mediterranean, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to underscore his support for a peace conference on Syria proposed by Moscow and Washington earlier this month. Read full article >>

Sectarianism in Iraq stoked by Syrian war

BAGHDAD — A recent tide of sectarian tensions that erupted into the worst violence seen in Iraq in five years is testing the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose ability to contain the crisis could hinge on a conflict raging beyond his control in Syria. Read full article >>

Syrian rebels demand weapons before talks

BEIRUT —The Syrian opposition is demanding access to arms before planned peace talks next month, amid a growing consensus that it may take a shift in the balance of power on the battlefield before any meaningful negotiations can take place. Read full article >>

Turkey looks for international aid, and countries to host refugees, in Syrian crisis

YAYLADAGI, Turkey — Facing one of the world’s largest refugee crises in decades, Turkish officials are urgently appealing for international financial assistance and calling on wealthy nations, particularly the United States and the countries of Europe, to start accepting large numbers of Syrian refugees. Read full article >>

Palestinians curb Israeli reporters’ access to West Bank

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinians gathered here Wednesday to commemorate the day they call al-Naqba, or the catastrophe, when the state of Israel was born in 1948.They heard their leaders repeat an old promise that someday, somehow, the scattered people would return. They posed for pictures, too, to prove that the Palestinians are still here, that they will not be forgotten. Read full artic

Video purporting to show Syrian rebel atrocity highlights challenges facing West on aid

BEIRUT — A graphic video allegedly showing a Syrian rebel cutting open a pro-government fighter’s chest and biting into one of his internal organs sparked outrage Tuesday, reviving concerns about the makeup of opposition forces even as the United States warned that it is ready to bolster its support for them. Read full article >>

Turkey’s Erdogan to air policy differences with Obama

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a critical U.S. ally in the Muslim world, is struggling with the crisis in Syria, which has strained his country’s fast-growing economy, swamped it with hundreds of thousands of refugees and created unusually public friction with Washington. Read full article >>

Turkey says bombing suspects are linked to Syria

BEIRUT — Turkey said on Sunday that it would step up its efforts to persuade the international community to do more to end the war in Syria, after investigators said they had found evidence that the regime in Damascus was behind the car bombing in a Turkish border town that killed 46 people. Read full article >>

Bombing kills at least 40 in Turkish border town

BEIRUT — Turkish officials accused Syria of carrying out a double car bombing on Saturday that killed at least 40 people in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, just days before a visit to Washington by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that is expected to focus on the crisis in Syria. Read full article >>

Last-minute entries reshape Iran’s presidential field

TEHRAN — Two of Iran’s most controversial figures announced Saturday that they are seeking to be candidates to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president.The emergence of two-term former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad’s top aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, dramatically changed the landscape of an election that until recently most observers thought would be fought be

Russian foreign minister denies new weapons sales to Syria

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister denied Friday that Moscow intends to sign any new contracts to sell surface-to-air missiles to Syria, although he said old contracts are being honored.“Russia does not plan to sell,” Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Warsaw, according to the Interfax news agency. “Russia has sold long ago and delivered hardware, which are air defense systems, under

Former Iranian president Rafsanjani ponders run in upcoming election

TEHRAN — Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most enduring political figures, has reentered the spotlight just over a month before Iranians vote in a presidential election. At 78, Rafsanjani, who was the Islamic Republic’s president from 1989 until 1997, hinted this week that he is considering one more run for the country’s top elected post, a prospect that has at once energized and u

Israel holds grand mufti for questioning on al-Aqsa mosque disturbance

JERUSALEM — Israeli police took the top Muslim caretaker of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy places from his home early Wednesday and held him for questioning about a violent disturbance at the al-Aqsa mosque, a move that increased tensions with Palestinians at a time when the United States is trying to revive peace talks. Read full article >>

Israel, once energy-dependent, is new big gas producer

NETANYA, Israel — The huge reservoirs of natural gas discovered off the coast of Israel now flowing toward shore have the potential to transform the ­energy-challenged country into a lean, green manufacturing machine — capable of supplying cheap, clean energy to its people, factories and vehicles for a generation. Read full article >>

Four U.N. observers detained in Golan Heights

BEIRUT —Syrian rebels kidnapped four United Nations peacekeepers Tuesday along the fraught cease-fire line between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, in a replay of a similar incident in March. The U.N. peacekeeping department in New York said four Philippine peacekeepers serving in the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force were captured by “an unidentified armed group” while patrolling near

Would-be Iranian presidents seek a place on the ballot

TEHRAN — Not just anyone is allowed to become president of Iran.But just about anyone can sign up to be considered, and the dozens of candidates who lined up to do so in Tehran on Tuesday offered a window into the uncertainty and confusion surrounding an election that is just six weeks away. Read full article >>

Israel tries to lower tensions with Syria after reports of airstrikes

JERUSALEM — Two small rockets from Syria were lobbed across the boundary into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Monday, and the Israeli military quickly played down the incident as “accidental spillover” from ­Syria’s raging civil war. Read full article >>

Syria threatens Israel, says airstrikes near Damascus open door to ‘all options’

BEIRUT — The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Sunday that a series of powerful Israeli airstrikes near the Syrian capital opened the door to “all the options,” underscoring the possibility that Syria’s civil war could spill across regional borders. Read full article >>

Syrian report: Israel bombs outskirts of Damascus for second time in recent days

BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday for the second time in recent days, according to Syrian state media and reports from activists, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between the neighboring countries that had already been exacerbated by the conflict raging in Syria. Read full article >>

Syrian report: Israel bombs outskirts of Damascus for second time in recent days

BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday for the second time in recent days, according to Syrian state media and reports from activists, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between the neighboring countries that had already been exacerbated by the conflict raging in Syria. Read full article >>

Ancient Syrian castles serve again as fighting positions

Beirut — A Shiite king ruled northern Syria more than a millennium ago from behind the towering walls of the citadel in the city of Aleppo. In later centuries, Arab armies repelled medieval crusaders from the hilltop fortress, Mongol invaders damaged it and Ottomans used it as a military barracks. Read full article >>

Fractured Syrian rebels scramble for cash as private sponsors dwindle

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — When the Syrian uprising was in its early stages in 2011, one businessman decided to do what he could to help. Banding together with other wealthy individuals from his town, some of them based overseas, he helped a group of local fighters buy light weapons “to continue the revolution.” Read full article >>

Afghan police officer killed in border clash with Pakistanis

KABUL — Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed overnight in an historically disputed border region, resulting in the killing of an Afghan police officer, officials said Thursday. The incident could add to growing tension between the long-uneasy neighbors, both of which are key U.S. allies. Read full article >>

Netanyahu cool to Arab land-swap initiative

JERUSALEM —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians could not achieve a peace deal based on land swaps alone and insisted that the most important thing is for Palestinians to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. Read full article >>

Deadly car bomb hits busy street in Damascus

BEIRUT — A bomb tore through a traffic-clogged district of downtown Damascus on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding scores, according to Syrian state television.It was the second attack to strike at the heart of President Bashar al-Assad’s power base in as many days, underscoring his vulnerabilities as he battles a disparate but increasingly well-supplied rebel movement. Syrian P

Syrian rebels tackle local government

AZAZ, Syria — The sign erected outside the former mayor’s office of a small village in rebel-held northern Syria is surprisingly lacking in revolutionary fervor. “Anyone who throws rubbish in the street will be fined,” it says, before warning that repeat offenders face a month in jail. Read full article >>

West Bank settler, Gaza militant killed in latest Israel-Palestinian violence

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian stabbed a Jewish settler to death in the West Bank on Tuesday — the first fatal attack on an Israeli there in more than a year — and the killing triggered retaliatory violence in both the West Bank and Jerusalem, a police spokesman said. Read full article >>

Wave of bombings further tests Iraq’s stability

BAGHDAD — A wave of car bomb blasts tore through Shiite areas south of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 36 people and deepening fears that Iraq is rapidly spiraling back out of control.The attacks capped a week of turmoil that is posing the greatest challenge to Iraq’s stability since U.S. troops left the country in late 2011. At least 218 people have been killed in attacks and battles bet

U.N. chief urges Syria to allow inspections by chemical weapons experts

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon renewed an appeal Monday to Syria to allow U.N. chemical weapons experts into the country, saying that on-site inspections are essential to “establish the facts and clear up all the doubts” surrounding the reported use of the banned weapons in Syria’s escalating civil war. Read full article >>