Assad sees no date for Syria talks, mulls re-election - Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-says-...42418.html Wrote:"Personally, I don't see any obstacles to being nominated to run in the next presidential elections," Assad told Syria's Al Mayadeen TV when asked if he thought it was suitable to hold the election, as scheduled, in 2014.

Council on Foreign Relations

http://links.cfr.mkt5175.com/servlet/Mai...1&rt=0 Wrote:Top of the Agenda: Saudi-U.S. Rift Seen Over Syria Policy Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief, told European diplomats the kingdom will scale back its cooperation with the United States to arm Syrian rebels and work instead with allies such as France and Jordan in an effort to topple the Assad regime (Gulf News). Secretary of State John Kerry met in Paris with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud al-Faisal, to calm tensions in the long-standing alliance and advocated the advantages of membership in the UN Security Council, which Riyadh spurned after being elected to a seat last week (Reuters). The United States reportedly cancelled delivery of drones to Turkey, highlighting another rift in U.S. relations with a Middle Eastern ally (JPost).

Not to mention Egypt...

Egypt-U.S. relations in turmoil: Egyptian foreign minister | Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/1...7220131016 Wrote:(Reuters) - Relations between the United States and Egypt are now in turmoil and the entire Middle East could suffer, the Egyptian foreign minister said in remarks made a week after Washington moved to curtail military aid to Cairo.

Nabil Fahmy told state-run Al-Ahram newspaper that Egypt had been dependent on U.S. aid for too long but Washington was wrong to assume the Cairo government would always follow its line.

"We are now in a delicate state reflecting the turmoil in the relationship and anyone who says otherwise is not speaking honestly," he said in comments published on Wednesday.

Cue Obama to say that relations between the US and Egypt have never been better...

Oh, and Turkey does the alliance a solid (noting that Erdogan has been described as Obama's best friend in the world)...

Council on Foreign Relations

http://links.cfr.mkt5175.com/servlet/Mai...1&rt=0 Wrote:"As we saw from the debate here in late August/early September, there's not a lot of enthusiasm about the United States getting directly involved in Syria. So there is no agreement at all with Turkey on this major issue," says Senior Fellow Steven Cook in a CFR Interview.

"Has Turkey, a member of Nato for 61 years, parted company with the west? It is a question Turkey's allies have begun to face. Three issues have converged to create the doubt: Ankara's decision to buy a Chinese missile defense system; its alleged ambivalence towards al-Qaeda affiliated fighters in Syria; and, most recently, allegations that Turkey betrayed Iranians spying for Israel to Tehran," writes Daniel Dombey in the Financial Times.