Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they had tightened their control over four major oil ports, casting a Western-backed project to unite Libya and revive oil exports into deep uncertainty.

• September 12, 2016

Iran, a close ally and military backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, welcomed a U.S.-Russian deal for a truce in Syria, saying on Sunday the conflict should be ended through politics.

• September 11, 2016

China and Russia will hold eight days of naval drills in the South China Sea off southern China's Guangdong province starting from Monday, China's navy said.

• September 11, 2016

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern after North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Friday.

• September 9, 2016

The Syrian government has effectively stopped aid convoys this month and the besieged city of Aleppo is close to running out of fuel, making U.S.-Russian peace talks in Geneva on Friday even more urgent, the United Nations said.

• September 9, 2016

Turkey will have to strike a balance between the conflicting goals of Russia and the United States if it is to achieve its ambition of a "safe zone" in northern Syria and build on an incursion which gave it control of a thin strip of the border.

• September 6, 2016

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday urged Russia to finalize a ceasefire agreement on Syria with the United States and stressed the urgency of delivering humanitarian aid to people under siege in Aleppo.

• September 4, 2016

Turkey renewed air strikes on Islamic State sites in Syria on Friday, extending operations along a 90-km (56-mile) corridor near the Turkish border which Ankara says it is clearing of jihadists and protecting from Kurdish militia expansion.

• September 2, 2016