The United Nations said on Friday it could not accept Russia's offer to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights because an agreement between Israel and Syria bars permanent members of the Security Council from the U.N. observer mission.

• June 10, 2013

Some 22 US nuclear weapons are stored on Dutch territory, says former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers.

• June 10, 2013

The United Nations said on Friday it could not accept Russia's offer to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights because an agreement between Israel and Syria bars permanent members of the Security Council from the U.N. observer mission.

• June 8, 2013

Russia is ready to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, after Vienna said it would recall its troops from a U.N. monitoring force due to worsening fighting in Syria.

• June 7, 2013

Sitting at a long table in Russia's Foreign Ministry, Syrian opposition leaders outlined a plan to protect Moscow's interests if the Kremlin agreed to the removal of its longstanding ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

• June 6, 2013

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday it was unacceptable for Russian forces to put up a fence on the border of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, believing it could further inflame tensions in the region.

• June 6, 2013

President Vladimir Putin dismissed criticism of Russian arms sales to Damascus on Tuesday but said Moscow had not yet delivered the S-300 missiles that Western governments say could prolong Syria's civil war.

• June 4, 2013

A British request to blacklist the armed wing of Hezbollah ran into opposition in the European Union on Tuesday, with several governments expressing concern that such a move would increase instability in the Middle East.

• June 4, 2013