Syria raised the stakes Monday in a war of words with Turkey over the shooting down of a Turkish fighter jet by Syria, an incident that threatens to draw in NATO.
After days of international shuttling on what to do with the troubling situation in Syria, Russia's foreign minister said Saturday his country will never agree to foreign intervention.
Peace talks between Sudan and South Sudan are scheduled to take place Tuesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the first such discussion since tensions peaked last month.
Special envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that international observers are the last hope for success of a peace plan in Syria. Otherwise, he warned, Syria is sure to plunge into full-scale civil war.
A Syrian opposition group says it has documented hundreds of deaths since the U.N. peace plan monitors began their work last week.
The world turned a skeptical eye toward Syria on Thursday after a truce cast relative calm over restive cities and towns previously pounded by government forces.
Despite fresh violence and global skepticism, the Syrian government said Wednesday it will abide by the terms of a United Nations-backed peace plan and meet a looming deadline to halt all military action.
The Syrian government has agreed to begin immediately to pull its forces out of population centers and will complete its withdrawal by April 10, diplomatic officials told reporters Monday.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must order a cease-fire immediately under a peace plan Syria accepted and not await concessions from the opposition, a spokesman for special envoy Kofi Annan said Friday.
Even though Syria has signed off on a U.N.-backed peace initiative, there's no evidence yet that the regime is carrying out the plan Wednesday, activists and the U.S. State Department said.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday delivered a stern rebuke to the Taliban, who say they are stopping peace negotiations with the United States.
Ireland's PM says European leaders must be honest and work with colleagues to emerge from the financial crisis.
Dublin will hold a referendum on the eurozone fiscal pact, plunging Europe into months of uncertainty and potentially placing a question mark over Ireland's membership of the euro.
The United States shuttered its embassy in Syria and pulled out its remaining staff Monday after the government refused to address its security concerns, the State Department said.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh explains how the Marines video scandal could affect the Afghanistan peace process.
The Afghan government of Hamid Karzai signaled willingness to join in with an American-led drive towards peace talks, according to a top official Sunday, removing a potential hurdle blocking U.S. efforts to push a peace process forward in the unstable country.
America's special envoy to the region talked peace and reconciliation with Hamid Karzai in Kabul Saturday, while the Afghan president made it clear that Afghans should be in the driver's seat.
The United States could inch closer next week toward peace talks with the Taliban if Afghan President Hamid Karzai blesses the negotiations, senior administration officials said Thursday.
Taliban may open an office in Qatar to facilitate talks with the U.S.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared to endorse talks between the United States and the Taliban that could lead to the opening of a Taliban liaison office in Qatar.
The United States has been in touch with North Korean government officials since the death of Kim Jong-il was announced, but those discussions were more "technical" in nature, a State Department spokeswoman said Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued her landmark visit in Myanmar on Friday by resuming a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who intends to run in upcoming parliamentary elections with her newly registered political party.
Britain has closed its embassy in Iran and evacuated all its staff from that country following the attack on the embassy compound in Tehran Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Wednesday.
Pakistan has decided to boycott an upcoming conference on the future of Afghanistan. CNN's Reza Sayah reports.
Afghanistan's president asked Pakistan to reconsider its decision on Tuesday to boycott an upcoming conference on the future of Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Taliban have declared a cease-fire in South Waziristan, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, three Taliban commanders told CNN Tuesday.
Secretary Clinton discusses Syria, China and her upcoming trip to Burma in CNN interview.CNN's Brianna Keilar interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about her upcoming trip to Myanmar.
Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to come forward with proposals on security and territory issues within the next three months, the European Union said, in a development that keeps alive hopes for renewed peace talks.
U.S. officials held a "positive" meeting Monday with a North Korean delegation in an effort to restart talks with the reclusive nation over ending Pyongyang's nuclear program, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy said.
The decisive and positive terms of ETA's response to Monday's "Declaration" in Donostia-San Sebastian by the International Conference group is to be welcomed, as is the response of the Spanish government and others.
An interagency team of U.S. officials, led by Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, will meet with a North Korean delegation next week in Geneva, Switzerland, the State Department said Thursday, as the Americans prepare to restart talks with the reclusive nation.
Officials in Washington said Monday they would grant consular access to the U.S.-held suspect in an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
Sen. John McCain talks to CNN's Wolf Blitzer about how he thinks the U.S. should respond to the alleged Iranian plot.
The United States will be looking for nations around the world to get tougher on Iran in the wake of the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.
China is continuing to speak out against a multibillion-dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, with the Chinese foreign minister telling U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday that the Obama administration should reconsider the deal.
She may be out of Washington and on the road for the week, but the heavy machinery of office has followed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to New York as she attends the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings.
The Israeli prime minister on Monday appealed for direct peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to be started in New York and continued in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Officials in Norway insist that airport security operated properly in subjecting baggage belonging to South Africa's top diplomat to security checks earlier this month.
The United Nations-African Union joint special representative to Darfur, Ibrahim Gambari, has called on leaders of Darfur rebels to join the peace process.
The top two American officials dealing with Middle East peace talks are headed back to the region, U.S. officials said Tuesday, as the Palestinians announced they are taking their bid for statehood to the United Nations.
In the wake of last Friday's ransacking by protesters of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, U.S. officials have engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity intended to calm tensions in the Middle East.
North Korea reiterated its call Monday for a resumption of six-party talks without preconditions, its state-run news agency reported from Pyongyang.
The chief nuclear envoys of North and South Korea agreed Friday to try to resume six-party talks as soon as possible, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out Monday at Syrian authorities for not protecting U.S. and French embassies in Damascus, adding she felt its president "has lost legitimacy" and wants to deflect attention from a crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Border security raises concerns in Sudan as it prepares to split in two. CNN's Nima Elbagir reports.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is leading a U.S. delegation to Juba for Saturday's ceremonies marking the independence of South Sudan, the White House said Wednesday.
Palestinian leaders announced Sunday that they will go to the United Nations this September and ask to be recognized as an independent country, a move opposed by both Israel and the United States.
Israeli President Shimon Peres calls for a peace deal with Palestinians, saying time is running out for an agreement.
Israel's president is calling for an "urgent" peace deal with Palestinians, saying time is running out for an agreement.
Recently, both The Washington Post and the German magazine Der Spiegel have reported on meetings between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban that have taken place in Germany to discuss some form of peace negotiations.
CNN Security Analyst Peter Bergen discussses the future of al Qaeda.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets his chance Monday night to address the main U.S. Jewish lobby when he speaks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks to the group the day before.
President Barack Obama said Sunday that any controversy over his remarks last week that Israel-Palestinian negotiations should start from pre-1967 borders and include land swaps was "not based in substance."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday firmly rejected President Barack Obama's call for an approximate return to the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, telling the U.S. leader that such a move is impossible in light of current security concerns and demographic realities.
President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met after airing public differences. CNN's Brianna Keilar reports.
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell is resigning as the Obama administration's Mideast envoy, the White House announced Friday.
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell is resigning as the Obama admin's Mideast envoy, according to a senior U.S. official.
The U.S. State Department on Friday refuted charges by former President Jimmy Carter that the United States and South Korea were withholding food aid from North Korea for political motives.
CNN's Candy Crowley talks to former National Security Adviser James Jones about the Libya crisis.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi flew to Greece Sunday to deliver a personal message from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a Greek foreign ministry official told CNN.
With President Obama in Latin America to talk trade this weekend, he faces a new stalemate at home on key treaties that he wants wrapped up this year.
The Obama administration is considering whether it should cut diplomatic ties with Libya, a senior U.S. official told CNN on Tuesday.
Secretary Clinton speaks at the first ever Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society.
The Obama administration launched into diplomatic outreach throughout the Middle East Saturday, even as it tries to determine the composition of the Egyptian military council and the line of authority in the future Egyptian government.
The United States is still working to establish contact with Egypt's new ruling military council.
Pakistan and India have agreed to resume peace talks that broke down after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, government ministries said Thursday.
After more than seven months of political gridlock, Nepal's parliament Thursday elected a 60-year-old leftist leader as the country's new prime minister.
Russia's lower house of parliament ratified Tuesday a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States, the first such weapons pact in the post-Cold War era.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lashed out Monday at Al-Jazeera, calling the Arabic TV network's release of alleged secret documents from Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations "shameful."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet with Mexico's foreign minister in bilateral talks Monday.
India has invited Pakistan to resume talks after last year's slow-progressing dialogue between the arch-rivals.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki Wednesday predicted a peaceful outcome if residents of Southern Sudan vote for independence in the election beginning Sunday.
The United States might replace its ambassador to Libya after WikiLeaks published his colorful cables to Washington about the eccentricities of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, complicating relations with the notoriously sensitive regime.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair warns the peace process could be in serious trouble if talks don't resume soon.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shook hands on the sidelines of Brazil's presidential inauguration this weekend, state media reported.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina expresses irritation at the way the lame duck Congress is working.
Last week, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint argued that the Senate should not approve the new START agreement with Russia because it might force senators to work over Christmas, thus showing insensitivity to the Christian faithful.
Following the breakdown of direct talks with Israel, Palestinians have begun seeking international recognition of an independent state from European nations.
Richard C. Holbrooke, the high-octane diplomat who spearheaded the end of the Bosnian war and most recently served as the Obama administration's point man in the volatile Afghan-Pakistani war zone, died Monday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington. Following are reactions to his death:
CNN's Nic Robertson reports on what Richard Holbrooke's death may mean for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States may have to expand its role from Middle East peace talks facilitator to become a broker on specific core issues, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday.
CNN's Larry King sits down with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss Mideast peace efforts.
Peter Galbraith talks about the diplomatic legacy of Richard Holbrooke.
U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died, a senior administration official told CNN Monday evening.
U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell began separate talks Monday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a tangible sign of the Obama administration's shifting approach to peace in the region.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Israelis and Palestinians to make the tough compromises needed to reach agreement on the core issues of the Mideast conflict, including borders, refugees, settlements and Jerusalem.
Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, was hospitalized Friday morning after feeling ill, a State Department spokesman said.
President Obama announces a new deal to strengthen economic ties between America and South Korea.
South Korea's foreign minister headed Sunday to Washington, in preparation for much anticipated talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts about the tense situation in and around the Yellow Sea.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Monday with the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan to discuss North Korea.
A Palestinian official said Thursday that an Israeli plan to build hundreds of new housing units in East Jerusalem could spell the end of the stalled talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
The threat of publication of thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables by a muckraker website has prompted a massive review of documents at U.S. embassies around the world, a U.S. official says.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reacts to the disclosure of diplomatic communications by WikiLeaks.
China has played a critical role in U.S. policy toward Iran since the Obama administration came into office, according to a CNN review of State Department cables published by WikiLeaks.
South Korea and the United States began assembling ships for joint war exercises Sunday off the west coast of the Korean peninsula in the Yellow Sea, a source at the South Korean Joint Chiefs told CNN.
A former U.S. ambassador to Russia tells CNN the impending leaks of diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks could contain highly sensitive information that reveals U.S. negotiating positions and sensitive intelligence as well as confidential views, analyses, instructions and strategy.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected Tuesday the Israeli Knesset's passage of a requirement that a referendum approve any Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.
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