The Latest Breaking News from Bashar alAssad

Every handshake would count, and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad had plenty of them at Friday's Arab League Summit - along with hugs and kisses - from his onetime foes in the region.

Syrian president attends first regional bloc summit since suspension over crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.

Assad is attending summit in Saudi Arabia after 12 years outside bloc over Syrian civil war

As some Syrians welcomed President Bashar al-Assad's return to the Arab League on Friday, others expressed dismay that Arab states had welcomed back a leader they blame for death and destruction during 12 years of brutal civil war.

The president of Syria is attending his first Arab League summit having been suspended from the organisation for the past 12 years.

Many Arab states have accepted that Bashar al-Assad’s government has survived in Syria, and want to return to normality.

President Bashar al-Assad's attendance at an Arab Summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday is the result of big policy shifts by Arab states that once backed his opponents in Syria's civil war.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was given a warm welcome at an Arab summit on Friday, winning a hug from Saudi Arabia's crown prince at a meeting of leaders who had shunned him for years, in a policy shift opposed by the U.S. and other Western powers.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend his first Arab League summit in 12 years in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on Friday. His government’s controversial return to the bloc comes as Arab states seek to curtail Syria’s thriving trade in Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine known as the “poor…

Western leaders and Gulf states clash over return of Syrian president after years of war against his own people

President Bashar al-Assad has always seen time as an ally in the Syrian civil war, along with the Iranian and Russian firepower that helped him defeat his enemies, according to sources familiar with his thinking.