- 06:46 25/05/2013
The US Department of State said on Friday that the latest deadly clashes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli “constitute a stark reminder” that the conflict in Syria threatens Lebanon’s stability.
- 05:22 25/05/2013 Originally posted at 02:05
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry on May 27, a source in the Russian Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti on Friday.
- 17:54 23/05/2013
The sale by Russia of S-300 air defense systems to Syria would be “destabilizing” for the region, US Secretary State John Kerry said on Thursday.
- 20:56 22/05/2013
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday described the results of the recent meeting of Syrian opposition groups in Madrid as “not reassuring,” and expressed hope that “constructive feedback” will follow.
- 13:43 22/05/2013
Six Ukrainian nationals were evacuated from Syria and returned to Kiev on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
- 06:52 21/05/2013
About 80 leaders of various Syrian opposition movements and organizations met on Monday in Madrid to forge a common position for the upcoming international conference on Syria, the EFE news agency reported.
- 20:14 19/05/2013
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed on Sunday that he had discussed Iran’s possible involvement in a conference to resolve the war in Syria, when he met his US counterpart John Kerry early in May.
- 19:44 19/05/2013
The Syrian army opened up a huge offensive on Sunday against rebel forces on four fronts, Lebanese TV channel Al Mayadin reported.
- 12:39 19/05/2013
After consultations with UN Security Council permanent members, a conference on the Syrian settlement will take place “very soon,” possibly, at the beginning of June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.
- 17:40 18/05/2013
Russia’s General Staff is opposed to military intervention in Syria, saying this would be meddling in the war-torn country’s domestic affairs, Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff, Col. Gen. Alexander Postnikov said.
- 00:54 18/05/2013
The United States’ top military officer and leading US lawmakers on Friday criticized Russia’s delivery of advanced anti-ship cruise missiles to the Syrian government, as first reported by The New York Times.
- 22:49 17/05/2013
In a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledged assistance in organizing an international conference to promote a political solution to the ongoing civil war in Syria.
- 15:09 17/05/2013
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday responded to a New York Times report that Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to war-torn Syria by saying that Russian arms deliveries do not change the balance of power, are fully legal and take place under existing contracts.
- 15:00 17/05/2013
Russia hopes that the Syrian authorities and the UN will agree on international inspections to look into the possible use of chemical weapons in the country's civil war, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
- 02:31 17/05/2013
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the southern Russian resort of Sochi on Friday.
- 00:18 17/05/2013
Against the backdrop of a violent civil war in Syria and the possible use of chemical weapons by government forces, US President Barack Obama said Thursday he is open to a “whole range” of options in Syria, but that a peaceful resolution will come from the combined efforts of the international community rather than unilateral actions by the United States alone.
- 18:01 16/05/2013 Bi-weekly column by Fyodor Lukyanov
After a relative lull, a recent flurry of news suggests that the endgame in Syria is approaching.
- 00:47 16/05/2013
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday approved a resolution on Syria calling for an end to the violence through political transition and condemning the Syrian government’s increased use of heavy weapons, in a vote backed by the United States but rejected by Russia as biased.
- 18:25 15/05/2013
The security services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states will be closely monitoring the movement of mercenaries from CIS nations fighting in Syria, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday.
- 03:33 15/05/2013
An international conference on Syria at a ministerial level may be held in Geneva if both sides of the Syrian conflict agree to participate in the event, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.
- 21:47 14/05/2013 Originally posted at 21:37.
If fresh media reports are true, Russia, Syria’s longtime supplier of military equipment, may soon provide Damascus – or already has – with advanced S-300 air defense systems, tipping the balance in the devastating 26-month conflict in the Middle Eastern country. But the “if” is a big one.
- 17:58 14/05/2013
Russia and Israel will continue cooperation in an effort to resolve the situation in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday following talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- 15:09 14/05/2013
Damascus’ participation in an international conference between representatives of both sides in the Syrian conflict depends on “details and developments” and it will not be a party to any act that would harm national sovereignty, Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said, the SANA state news agency reported on Tuesday.
- 14:51 14/05/2013
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a brief working visit to Russia, met on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Syria and the Middle East, with missile deliveries likely to be on the agenda.
- 04:16 14/05/2013
Britain will allocate a total of 40 million British pounds ($61.2 million) in humanitarian and non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, British prime minister’s office said in a statement.
- 23:53 13/05/2013
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday urged Moscow to join an international effort to end the civil war in Syria, where more than 80,000 people have died and five million have been forced to flee their homes.
- 22:30 13/05/2013
The United States and European countries have changed their stance on the Syrian civil war to a “more realistic” one, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said in an interview aired on Monday by the Arabic-language Russia Today channel.
- 15:45 12/05/2013
The European Commission announced on Sunday the allocation of an additional 65 million euros ($84.5 million) in humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria.
- 14:41 12/05/2013
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi on Sunday rejected Turkey's allegations that Damascus was responsible for two car bombings that killed over 40 people in a Turkish town near the Syrian border and wounded dozens of others.
- 04:37 12/05/2013
At least 43 people were killed on Saturday in twin blasts in Turkey, which the country’s top officials blamed on Syrian special services, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
- 15:42 11/05/2013
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia to discuss the supplying of Russian weapons to Syria, a high-ranking source in Jerusalem told RIA Novosti on Saturday.
- 14:16 11/05/2013
An international conference between representatives of both sides in the Syrian conflict is unlikely to take place before the end of May as earlier stated, as there are still too many differences of opinion over the event’s format.
- 06:32 11/05/2013
The United States believes a military engagement in Syria may still be prevented, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday.
- 19:49 10/05/2013
Russia has no plans to supply Syria with weapons beyond the current contracts that Moscow is honoring, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
- 18:54 10/05/2013
Russia and the United Kingdom have common interest in preserving Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
- 06:48 10/05/2013
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday thanked top Russian and US diplomats for their initiative to organize an international conference on Syria, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
- 02:53 10/05/2013
US officials on Thursday reiterated their call to Moscow to cut off arms sales to Syria, hours after media reports suggested that Russia was ready to sell advanced ground-to-air missile systems to the country.
- 19:47 09/05/2013
Syria’s Foreign Ministry welcomed on Thursday rapprochement between the United States and Russia over resolving the crisis in the war-torn country, the Syrian state news agency has reported.
- 10:23 09/05/2013
While an internationally brokered resolution of the Syrian conflict may not yet be within sight, Russia is in a position to play a crucial role in pushing the Syrian elites to accept a transition process, or so argues Jeffrey Mankoff, Deputy Director and Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
- 20:32 08/05/2013
Internet access was restored in Syria on Wednesday after the country had been cut off from the worldwide web for almost 24 hours, the SANA state-controlled news agency reported.
- 18:35 08/05/2013
Syria’s government is working to repair an Internet and phone services outage there that entered its second day on Wednesday, state media reported.
- 13:59 08/05/2013
The UN and Arab League's special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, “warmly welcomed” on Wednesday an agreement between Russia and the United States to convene international talks on Syria that will include both representatives of the Syrian government and opposition.
- 01:13 08/05/2013
Russia and the United States will set up an international conference on Syria by the end of this month that will hopefully include representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
- 12:32 07/05/2013
Iran accused Western powers on Tuesday of helping Syrian rebels gain access to chemical weapons.
- 23:44 06/05/2013
US officials are “highly skeptical” of claims that Syrian rebels had deployed chemical weapons in their war with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.
- 19:25 06/05/2013
Russia does not have conclusive evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, Russian Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev said on Monday.
- 13:58 06/05/2013
The United Nations commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Syria has heard testimony that the rebels have used chemical weapons, a leading UN official on Syria said in a recent interview with a Swiss-Italian TV network.
- 04:32 06/05/2013
Israel decided to close airspace to civilian aircraft over its northern part of the country in the wake of reports on alleged Israeli airstrikes on Syria, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
- 13:31 05/05/2013
Iran condemned on Sunday the recent Israeli airstrikes on Syria and urged regional countries to resist such acts of ‘aggression,’ Fars news agency reported, referring to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast.
- 08:25 05/05/2013
Israel carried out early on Sunday a missile attack on a military research center outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
- 13:33 04/05/2013
Israeli officials confirmed Saturday that their country had carried out an air strike against neighboring Syria, the Associated Press reported.
- 07:58 04/05/2013
The parties to the conflict in Syria should seek political dialog, a UN spokesman said Friday.
- 20:04 03/05/2013
Moscow is ready to hold talks with all representatives of the Syrian opposition, including Salim Idriss, leader of the Free Syrian Army, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
- 20:30 02/05/2013
Moscow urges the United Nations to respond to Syria’s request to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons on its territory in March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
- 20:21 30/04/2013
US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the circumstances surrounding an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria remain murky and that Washington is working with the Syrian opposition to determine the nature of the purported incident.
- 20:16 30/04/2013
Russia’s aviation authority issued a decree on Tuesday banning all Russian airlines from flying over Syrian territory following an incident on Monday in which a passenger plane reportedly had to make a detour to avoid military action in the war-torn country.
- 18:17 30/04/2013
Militants in Syria have used chemical weapons against civilians with the aim of discrediting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Syrian state-run TV said on Tuesday.
- 11:53 30/04/2013
The United States has claimed that chemical weapons have been used in the civil war in Syria. In a recent phone conversation, US President Barack Obama voiced his concerns over Syria’s chemical weapons to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Syria remains one of the states which has not signed the chemical weapons convention. Damascus has denied reports alleging its forces used chemical weapons in its internal conflict.
- 16:41 29/04/2013
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived a bomb attack that targeted his motorcade in central Damascus on Monday, national media reported.
- 14:30 29/04/2013
Moscow believes using the issue of the alleged deployment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Syrian conflict to attain geopolitical goals is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
- 03:40 27/04/2013
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces spoke against Russian experts investigating a possible use of chemical weapons in the country.
- 00:53 27/04/2013
US claims of evidence that Syrian forces used chemical weapons gives Washington a chance to break its diplomatic stalemate with Russia over the ongoing civil war, but securing Moscow’s endorsement of the claim will likely be a tall order, analysts said Friday.
- 07:10 26/04/2013
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday reiterated his call on Syrian authorities to allow an international technical expert team to conduct a fact-finding mission in the country over the possible use of chemical weapons.
- 01:38 26/04/2013 Originally published at 20:25, Thursday, Moscow time.
The United States said Thursday it has evidence that chemical weapons have been used by the Syrian government in the civil war there, blaming the increasingly “desperate” regime of President Bashar al-Assad for crossing a “red line” that US President Barack Obama has said could lead to US intervention in the conflict.
- 20:25 25/04/2013
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the United States has determined that chemical weapons have been used in the civil war in Syria.
- 19:46 25/04/2013
US Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel says there is evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons.
- 02:46 25/04/2013
Providing assistance to Syria’s armed opposition that is seeking to change the regime is dangerous, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said in the UN Security Council on Wednesd
- 23:19 24/04/2013
More than 100 people left Syria on Wednesday aboard an airplane provided by the Russian Emergencies Ministry, a ministry spokeswoman said.
- 18:05 24/04/2013
Continuous exchanges of gunfire between Sunni Muslims and Alawite Muslims in Lebanon’s second largest city, Tripoli, located in the north of this multi-faith country 50 kilometers away from the Syrian border have split residents into two hostile camps. Syrian refugees, whose numbers have been growing steadily in recent months, also figure in the conflict.
- 21:32 23/04/2013
The Syrian authorities called the EU decision to allow the import of Syrian oil and its derivatives through exclusive transactions with the rebels an “illegal” move and “an act of aggression” on Tuesday.
- 21:14 23/04/2013
Any reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict must be carefully investigated to avoid the repetition of the “Iraqi scenario,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
- 17:59 23/04/2013
Moscow strongly condemned on Tuesday the abduction of two Christian bishops by Syrian rebels and demanded their immediate release.
- 23:58 22/04/2013
A deputy Russian foreign minister on Monday criticized the European Union’s decision to ease its sanctions against Syria to support the country's opposition.
- 04:09 21/04/2013
Syria’s opposition has asked its foreign supporters to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for “surgical strikes” on missile positions of Syrian government forces.
- 21:57 19/04/2013
The UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi on Friday denied media reports that he was about to quit his job.
- 19:34 19/04/2013
The deployment of US troops to Jordan will only make the Syrian crisis worse, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday.
- 20:54 18/04/2013
Russia has refused to join Western calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down because it fears not only losing its “last bastion” of influence in the Middle East but also what would follow Assad, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday.
- 04:44 18/04/2013
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned the West that it will pay a price for supporting terrorists linked to Al Qaeda in Syria and warned that the conflict may eventually spread beyond Syrian borders.
- 20:12 17/04/2013
Moscow is not in the business of bringing about regime change in Syria or legitimizing such attempts, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
- 17:05 17/04/2013
Turkey has already spent $700 million helping Syrian refugees, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday, calling on international organizations to stop turning a blind eye to Syria’s problems.
- 16:04 16/04/2013 Originally posted on 16/04/2013 at 13:34.
Dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition forces could begin within the next several months, Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, leader of the People’s Will party, said in Moscow on Tuesday.
- 17:09 14/04/2013
A Syrian Airlines plane carrying more than 30 tons of humanitarian aid for the victims of the ongoing conflict in Syria has landed in Damascus, Russia's embassy in the Syrian capital said on Sunday.
- 17:29 13/04/2013
Four Italian journalists kidnapped and held in Syria since early April were released on Saturday, Italy's interim Foreign Minister Mario Monti said.
- 02:08 12/04/2013
Syrian warplanes delivered airstrike on the Lebanese border region of al-Ajram near the town of Arsal wounding six people on Thursday, Lebanon’s The Daily Star reported.
- 20:13 11/04/2013
Moscow is concerned by al Qaeda’s growing interest in Syria, fearing that the international terrorist organization is seeking to turn the country into its Mideast base, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
- 14:45 11/04/2013
About 20,000 mercenaries fighting in Syria are financed by the proceeds of Afghan drug trafficking, Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service director Viktor Ivanov said on Thursday.
- 13:57 11/04/2013
Turkey will establish a separate camp for Syrian Christians fleeing the violence in their war-torn country, Today's Zaman daily said on Thursday citing a senior official from the government’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate.
- 08:50 11/04/2013
The conflict in Syria will have no winner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
- 13:16 10/04/2013
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry will send more planes to Lebanon and Jordan carrying humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees this week, the ministry said on its website on Wednesday.
- 02:43 09/04/2013
Syrian authorities reject an “additional demand” by the UN to let its investigative mission operate across all Syria's territory, the state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported on Monday in its Russian-language section.
- 18:38 06/04/2013
Moscow believes the United Nations is disrupting an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria under pressure of “certain states,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
- 04:57 06/04/2013
Four Italian journalists were abducted on Friday in northern Syria, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported early on Saturday Moscow time, citing a foreign ministry statement.
- 22:15 05/04/2013
Russia has contributed $1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to finance the ICRC humanitarian operation in Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
- 20:26 05/04/2013
Russia is not looking to oust Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and wants the conflicting parties to negotiate and stop the “massacre,” putting an end to the “catastrophe” in Syria, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
- 18:01 05/04/2013
Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov has dismissed Chechens fighting in Syria as merely mercenaries “fighting for money and not an idea,” and said they have nothing to do with his republic.
- 17:47 04/04/2013
Syria is turning into a “center of gravity” for international terrorists as the ongoing civil war between rebels and government forces continues, Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday.
- 17:27 03/04/2013
A Russian Emergencies Ministry plane carrying 26.7 tons of humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in Lebanon landed in Beirut on Wednesday.
- 21:23 02/04/2013
The West might try implementing a modified "Libyan scenario" in Syria by supplying weapons to the Syrian opposition to oust President Bashar al-Assad, Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday.
- 19:30 02/04/2013
Confirming Russian Islamists’ involvement in the Syrian civil war, a new website has been launched to promote the activity of a Syrian rebel group – in Russian language.
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