Congress has authorized $618.7 billion for the 2017 military budget. The bill ups aid to Ukraine by $50 million and allows the transfer of missiles to Syrian rebels. However, it omits controversial provisions about drafting women or religious exemptions for contractors. [...]

The US has firmly rejected a Russian-drafted Security Council resolution seeking to establish an objective investigative mechanism to probe all allegations of chemical attacks in Syria “based on impeccable and irrefutable data.” [...]

Washington has no evidence that the chemical agent sarin has ever been used by the Syrian government, Pentagon chief James Mattis has admitted. It did not stop him from still being concerned about Assad, though. "We do not have evidence of it,” the US Defense Secretary told journalists, referring to the alleged use of sarin nerve agent by Syrian government forces. [...]

Former Scotland Yard detective Charles Shoebridge explains why claims of chlorine attacks in Syria should be treated with caution. The alleged use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria is back in the news in the US and UK, with fresh incidents reported and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson taking the opportunity within the last few days to condemn Syrian President Bashar Assad over the issue. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Washington confirmed its commitment to take back the heavy weapons it had supplied to Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria but did not set a time frame for the process, a US official told Turkish media following a high-level meeting in Ankara. [...]

As Kurdish fighters look to the US to help in the fight against Turkish troops in Manbij, some are accusing Washington of double standards after it did nothing to protect Afrin from “Turkish occupation.” “With the coalition, especially the US forces, we saw some double standards,” a Kurdish military officer by the name of Khalil told RT’s Ruptly agency. [...]

As Ankara and Syrian rebels it backs oppose Kurdish-led opposition forces fighting against Daesh terrorists with the US military support in the country, media reports emerged that US servicemen came under fire from a group of Turkey-backed rebels. [...]

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has stated that the United States should take concrete steps to prove the end of support for Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), rather than rhetoric. [...]

The US is working to create alternative government systems on Syrian territory which goes against its promises to respect the country’s territorial integrity, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Responding to a question posed by RT’s Caleb Maupin at Friday's briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, Lavrov commented on America's role in the crisis in northern Syria, [...]

The US must withdraw its troops from Syria’s northern Manbij region and put an end to its support for Kurdish militia in the area, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded Saturday. Cavusoglu told reporters on Saturday that the US needs to immediately withdraw from the region near the city [...]

Foreign forces need the Afrin offensive launched by the Turks to enflame a new round of war in the region, Syrian official Heifi Mustafa told Sputnik. For his part, Turkish academic Samir Salehah argues that Ankara's Operation Olive Branch falls within the framework of Article 51 of the UN Charter as a self-defense operation. [...]

In an unprecedented situation, Washington failed to convince its closest allies in the Arab world to support Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in the UN General Assembly, Aiman Abdel Shafi an academic specializing on international relations and the US affairs told Sputnik. [...]

Qatar is in the “advanced stage” of negotiating the purchase of Russia’s advanced S-400 anti-aircraft system. The long-range SAM missile weapon seems to be the latest fad in the Middle East after its Syria showcase. Doha’s negotiations with Moscow on the purchase of the S-400 system is “in the advanced stage,” Qatari Ambassador to Russia Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah told TASS news age [...]

Kurdish officials in Afrin have urged Damascus to send troops to protect Syria’s sovereignty from the “Turkish occupier.” Ankara insists it will return the enclave to its “original owner” after its “liberation” from “terrorists.” The self-administrated, Kurdish-held enclave in the northern Syria issued a plea for help to the Syrian government on Thursday, reiterating its commitme [...]

While Secretary of Defense James Mattis recommends Ankara not to take reports of the creation of a "border force" in northern Syria to heart, Washington sees its Kurdish allies as a tool which will allow it to remain relevant in Syria, ex-CIA officer and Canada-based Syrian political observer told Sputnik. [...]

If Washington wants to avoid direct confrontation with Turkey in northern Syria, it “should stop supporting terrorists,” the country's deputy prime minister told Turkish TV channel, A Haber. “Those who support the terrorist organization will become a target in this battle,” Bekir Bozdag said. [...]

The US' determination to maintain its presence in Syria is primarily about crude and pipelines, not security issues, geopolitical analyst Phil Butler told Sputnik. Meanwhile, it appears that the Turks may undermine the US' plans. Following the defeat of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL), Washington continues its proxy war in Syria, Phil Butler, a geopolitical analyst and author of "Putin's Praetorians: Confession [...]

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) held a session aimed at assessing the progress Israel made during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a UN-backed process designed to assess the human rights record of a state and make recommendations for improvement.  In the course of the struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians, the UN has repeatedly accused Israel of not respecting hum [...]

There is nothing to be gained from carrying out the bidding of the US in Syria, and right now Turkey and the Kurds alike are learning this the hard way, independent political analyst Dan Glazebrook told RT. Turkey officially launched a military operation against Kurdish-held enclaves in Syria called operation ‘Olive Branch’ on Saturday, comprising airstrikes and a ground offensive. [...]

The US has no business in Afghanistan but it loves war and could be there for another 17 years, killing hundreds of thousands more people, according to Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that several Americans were among the victims in Saturday's attack on a hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where 22 people died in the overnight si [...]

Israeli pilots are taking a stand against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mission to expel tens of thousands of African migrants from the country, publicly declaring they will not “deport refugees to their death.” [...]

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointed the finger at Syrian President Bashar Assad for the reported chemical incident in East Ghouta, while ultimately blaming Russia for it, regardless of who actually committed the attack. [...]