In Lebanon, many saw the election on Thursday of Gen. Joseph Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese military, as a crucial step toward bringing stability to the country. It was also seen as a concession by Hezbollah and, some analysts said, an acknowledgment that the group was no longer in a position to paralyze the state.

The parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state, filling the vacant presidency with a general who has U.S. support and showing the weakened sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.

Syria’s former media chief and top aide to Bashar al-Assad said that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have “tricked” the ousted Syrian president in his final days as leader.

Assad’s regime and prevent its collapse, coupled with recent significant blows to Hizballah and Israeli strikes

Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon for three decades under the Assad family, with President Hafez al-Assad intervening in its 1975-1990 civil war and his son Bashar al-Assad only withdrawing Syria's troops in 2005 following mass protests triggered by the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

An Assad official claims Putin betrayed his ally by promising support that never came.

Spain's foreign minister raised his country's flag at their Damascus embassy on Thursday more than a decade after Madrid suspended diplomatic activity and as Western countries resume ties following

Gaza The smell of paint lingers in the air, a wall still tacky from its application. In the Palestinian neighbourhood of Yarmouk near Syria's capital Damascus, a graffiti mural shows a man wearing a keffiyeh around his neck,

Spain raised its flag at Madrid's Damascus embassy Thursday, in the presence of its top diplomat more than a decade after suspending activity and as Western countries resume ties following Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

Geopolitics abhors a power vacuum. One country’s loss is another’s gain, and the space left by Iran is being occupied, for now, by Turkey. This should come as no surprise: the history of the Middle East between the 16th and 18th centuries was that of struggle between the Ottoman and Persian empires, and it seems to be reviving in the 21st century.

The new interim Syrian government says it will hunt down and punish senior security officials and others, but concern is growing about attacks on former low-level members of the Assad regime’s forces.

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