The January 22 start of landmark Syria peace talks in Geneva will be difficult to keep to as the war worsens and fallout spreads across the Middle East, analysts say.
The United Nations Security Council has received the first report from chemical weapons inspectors inside Syria. The report details the country's cooperation with the initial effort to destroy its capacity to manufacture the weapons but despite progress on that front, the humanitarian crisis there shows no sign of improvement.
Saudi Arabia refused to accept the membership of the United Nations Security Council it won yesterday, citing issues including Syria’s civil war that it said show the world body is incapable of resolving conflicts.
Saudi Arabia took the extraordinary step Friday of refusing to take its seat on the U.N. Security Council -- despite pursuing the position for years. It's an unprecedented protest over the council's failure to take firmer action in Syria and Palestine. And it comes at a time of growing Saudi frustration with American-led policies across the Middle East.
Chosen as one of the most influential women in the world by Time magazine, Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. undergoes a baptism by fire as she confronts the difficulties of Syrian diplomacy.
Destroying the chemical horrors may prove the easy part of ending Syria's war as the United Nations struggles to bring the government and opposition to the negotiating table.
Read the full Agence France-Presse article here here
United Nations: The UN Security Council has demanded immediate and “unhindered” access to hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the Syrian conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met under the steely gaze of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whose portrait hung over their negotiating table at U.N. headquarters, and hammered out their latest agreement Thursday on a U.N. Security Council resolution to scrap Syria's chemical weapons.
Syria peace talks face major obstacles: analysts
The January 22 start of landmark Syria peace talks in Geneva will be difficult to keep to as the war worsens and fallout spreads across the Middle East, analysts say.
Read the full Agence France Presse article here