Powerful Syrian militant Zahran Alloush, who leads the Army of Islam in Damascus has spoken to the Daily Beast including about accusations that he is "just another dictator in Islamic garb."
This is what he had to say about the United States:
America is a powerful country and it can play a major role to end the Syrian conflict if it wants. But the current administration refuses to play this role and acts with cold blood when it comes to Syria. It has failed to respond effectively to Assad’s massacres and we saw that obviously when Assad crossed the “red-line” on the use of chemical weapons. America was able to stop the chemical attacks, but it didn’t care.
When America demanded Assad to pull his army out of Lebanon, Assad had to do that in few days, though being in Lebanon was very essential and important for his regime. Even if the administration didn’t want to intervene directly, it is still able to support the real revolutionary groups which are capable of toppling Assad and at the same time defeating ISIS. Instead, it is promoting weak groups and supporting them just to say, ‘We are doing something for Syria.’
Russia's Life News -- which has links to the country's security services -- finally has an update on the talks today between U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
But it's not about the discussions on Syria.
Instead, Life News says that Lavrov told its correspondent that he had gifted Kerry a toy Grandfather Frost -- the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus.
"He came to the talks, and there was a Christmas tree. He immediately rushed over to the Grandfather Frost that was hanging there and began to twirl it. I said, that according to the laws of hospitality, whatever a guest liked he could have. He said, "no, no, I'm going to the Arbat, I'm going to buy New Year gifts there. But all the same we gave him the Grandfather Frost," Life News claims Lavrov said.
The United States has said that a Saudi-based alliance which Riyadh says will target terrorist groups was in line with its calls for greater involvement by Sunni Muslim countries to combat the IS group, AFP reports.
"We look forward to learning more about what Saudi Arabia has in mind in terms of this coalition," U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told journalists at Incirlik in Turkey.
This just in from AFP.
Last month in the wake of the November 13 Paris attacks European Union interior ministers discussed tightening the external borders of the passport-free Schengen area after it emerged that the man thought to be the ringleader of the attacks traveled undetected from Syria to France.
RIA Novosti has this breaking news from the talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Lavrov has said that talks are ongoing about the possibility of a meeting in New York regarding Syria on Friday.
There is no update in the Russian media yet about any outcome of today's talks between U.S.Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Meanwhile Russia's Zvezda military television is reporting that Kerry has bought matryoshkas and amber for 35,000 rubles in Moscow's Old Arbat Street.
And cartoonist Sergey Elkin tweeted this cartoon, with the comment, "Who knows -- why did John Kerry come?"
The Iraqi government has demanded the "complete withdrawal" of Turkish forces from its territory, indicating Ankara's partial pullout yesterday from a camp near the IS-controlled northern city of Mosul was not enough.
The cabinet "renewed its firm position on the necessity of a response from neighboring Turkey to the Iraqi demand for a complete withdrawal from Iraqi territory and respect for its national sovereignty," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said in a statement, AFP reports.
French police have arrested a man in Villiers-sur-Marne to the east of Paris considered to be a "peripheral" suspect in the November 13 attacks in the French capital, judiciary sources said.
Azerbaijan is considering joining the Saudi Arabia-led Islamic coalition against terrorism, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev has said, according to TASS.
Hajiyev said that the Azerbaijani foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, had discussed the matter in a telephone call with his Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir.
"Currently, the issue (of joining the coalition) is under consideration. As a country that has suffered from terrorism, Azerbaijan strongly condemns all its forms and manifestations," Hajiyev said, according to TASS.
The United States is concerned about the radicalization and participation of Kosovar Albanians in the IS group, Kosovar daily Gazeta Express has reported, according to the InSerbia.info website.
Gazeta Express quoted U.S. State Department Office for South Central European Affairs Director Thomas Yazdgerdi:
Yazdgerdi said that during his time in Kosovo as a Deputy Ambassador in 2009, he had not seen this level of expansion of extreme religious ideology. However, Yazdgerdi stated that legislation must be clear on how to proceed with these people.