Syria News

ABU DHABI // Washington's decision to dispatch an ambassador to Damascus after a four-year diplomatic absence marks a breakthrough in US-Syrian relations, according to Jeffrey Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs.

The President of Syria has issued a historic invitation to his American counterpart Barack Obama, to a summit in Damascus in an exclusive interview with Sky News.

Engineering firm Metka has been awarded a 640-million-euro project to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Syria in a joint venture with ItalyA's Ansaldo Energia, a deal taking the Greek companyA's order backlog to almost 1.5 billion euros.

Sarkozy's political chief of staff Claude Gueant and his chief diplomatic adviser Jean-David Levitte sat down with Assad and also met with his Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, said foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.

The Obama administration confirms it is sending a U.S. ambassador to Syria after a four-year absence.

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri began parliamentary consultations Monday aiming to form a unity government with rivals including the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Four people suspected of links to al-Qaida were charged Monday with planning attacks in Lebanon and neighboring Syria, judicial officials said.

Byblos Bank Syria is seeking to recruit a relationship manager based in Damascus and Aleppo.

A lawyer says Italian authorities are set to expel to Syria one of the Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985.

Saad Hariri, son of slain billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, was himself named Lebanon's new prime minister on Saturday, a presidential statement said.

Shiite leader Nabih Berri was re-elected to a fifth consecutive term as parliament speaker on Thursday, consolidating his position as one of Lebanon's most influential politicians.

The Obama administration has decided to return a US ambassador to Syria, the WaPo's Scott Wilson reports today.

Khalid Meshaal, chief of the executive of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Thursday said his group was prepared to have a 'direct dialogue without conditions' with the US.

President Obama has decided to send a U.S. ambassador back to Syria, a dramatic sign of reconciliation between the two countries, the State Department announced Wednesday.

President Obama has decided to send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday evening, in a sign of the deepening engagement between the Obama administration and the Syrian government.

Mazen Darwish is not exactly a political prisoner. But for more than two years, this human rights activist has been confined within the borders of his country.

Syrian officials said developments in the oil and gas sector would bring wealth to the country as Damascus looks for potential trade growth.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended the tenure of the Mossad chief to an eighth year yesterday, a testament to the spymaster's perceived success in waging shadow wars against Iran and its allies.

On June 17 President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar Al-Assad and Mrs. Asma Al-Assad will pay a two-day official visit to Armenia at the invitation of Serzh Sargsyan.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed on Saturday efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We agree with Syria that the dialogue should succeed," Abbas's aide Nabil Abu Rdainah told reporters.