Bashar Assad

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In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, hold up his portraits as they march during a demonstration is solidarity with government forces, in al-Inshaat neighborhood of Homs, Syria, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2014. Meanwhile the Syrian government on Tuesday allowed over a hundred men of fighting age to leave rebel-held areas of the besieged city of Homs after they were questioned and cleared of rebel links, state media said. (AP Photo/SANA)

Analysis: In peace talks, Assad plays for time

By ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013, file photo, a citizen journalism image provided by the United Media Office of Arbeen which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows members of the United Nations investigation team take samples from sand near a part of a missile that is likely to be a chemical rocket, according to activists, in the Damascus countryside of Ain Terma, Syria. The Obama administration is offering to destroy some of Syria's deadliest chemical weapons in international waters aboard a nearly 700-foot (213-meter), U.S. government-owned ship, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Local Committee of Arbeen, File)

U.N. tells Syria to hurry on chemical weapons disposal

By EDITH M. LEDERER - Associated Press

FILE - In this file photo taken Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, displaced Syrian children gather barefoot in a refugee camp near Atma, Idlib province, Syria. Children in Syria have been tortured, maimed and sexually abused by President Bashar Assad's forces and recruited for combat by the rebels fighting to topple him, according to a new United Nations report, posted on the U.N. website late Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo, File)

UN: ‘Unspeakable suffering’ for Syria’s children

By BARBARA SURK - Associated Press

This photo provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man carrying a wounded child following a Syrian government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Feb. 3, 2013. Syrian government helicopters and warplanes unleashed a wave of airstrikes on more than a dozen opposition-held neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, firing missiles and dropping crude barrel bombs in a ferocious attack that killed at least 36 people, including children, activists said. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)

Syrian forces drop ‘barrel bomb’ filled with fuel, scrap metal on mosque

Associated Press

Syrian airstrikes kill at least 18 in Aleppo

By Ryan Lucas - Associated Press

FILE - This July 27, 2011, file image from a web posting by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, provided by IntelCenter, shows al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Israel on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014, said it had foiled an "advanced" al-Qaida plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets, in what analysts said was the first time the global terror network's leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel. The Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks, and that the men were recruited by an operative based in the Gaza Strip who worked for al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. (AP Photo/IntelCenter, File)

Al Qaeda chief: Syria rebels must end infighting

By Bassem Mroue - Associated Press

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gestures as speaks during a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014. Leaders gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos have made it a top priority to push to reshape the global economy and cut global warming by shifting to cleaner energy sources. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Iran’s heavyweight absence hangs over Syria talks

By Lee Keath and Zeina Karam - Associated Press

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem leads his delegation during a plenary session in Montreux, Switzerland, Wednesday Jan. 22, 2014. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says there is no way that Syrian President Bashar Assad can be part of a transitional government that's being discussed at an international conference aimed at ending the country's brutal conflict. (AP Photo/Gary Cameron, Pool)

Syria peace talks open with bitter clash on fate of Bashar Assad

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EST

Associated Press

United States Secretary of State John Kerry, left, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, join hands after their tri-lateral meeting on ending the crisis in Syria in Montreux, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. Syria's main political opposition group in exile agreed on Saturday to attend internationally sponsored peace talks, and said for the first time three rebel fighting forces also wanted to take part. (AP Photo/Gary Cameron, Pool)

Syrian peace talks stuck over Assad’s future

By Matthew Lee and Zeina Karam - Associated Press

Brutality of Syria war casts doubt on peace talks

By Zeina Karam - Associated Press

President Barack Obama talks about National Security Agency (NSA)surveillance, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014, at the Justice Department in Washington.Seeking to calm a furor over U.S. surveillance, the president called for ending the government's control of phone data from -hundreds of millions of Americans and immediately ordered intelligence agencies to get a secretive court's permission before accessing the records. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Obama staunchly defends Syria policy, blasts critics’ ‘magical thinking’

By Douglas Ernst - The Washington Times

** FILE ** A Syrian rebel fighter returns from fighting Syrian army forces in Aleppo. (Associated Press)

American jihad: U.S. officials worried over number of citizens headed to Syria

Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, right, in Riyadh, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. Seeking to bridge multiple policy rifts with Saudi Arabia, Kerry hailed the kingdom's role as "the senior player" in the Middle East on Monday. Speaking to employees at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh ahead of meetings with Saudi Arabia's king and foreign minister, Kerry said Saudi Arabia had assumed the Arab leadership mantle from Egypt, which is currently distracted by major domestic uncertainty. He said strengthening the U.S.-Saudi partnership is critical to Mideast security and stability and cementing tentative political transitions around the region. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool)

Embassy Row: In Saudi Arabia, Obama viewd as a ‘paper tiger president’

By James Morrison - The Washington Times

** FILE ** Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Sept. 12, 2013. (Associated Press)

Russia’s Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times

Theodore Roosevelt

PRUDEN: Measuring Putin for Mount Rushmore

By Wesley Pruden

Embassy Row: Obama’s accidental diplomacy on Syria

By James Morrison - The Washington Times

President Barack Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with Speaker of the House Boehner, Saturday, August 31, 2013. Vice President Joe Biden listens at right. (credit: White House photo/Pete Souza)

Obama’s foreign policy legacy: The accidental diplomat

By Ben Wolfgang and Dave Boyer - The Washington Times

**FILE** In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian military solider fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with rebels in Maaloula village, northeast of the capital Damascus, Syria, on Sept. 7, 2013. (Associated Press)

Al Qaeda’s strength with Syrian rebels now being downplayed

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times