Since the start of Syria's war in 2011, several diplomatic initiatives have stumbled over the future of President Bashar al-Assad. Here is a recap:

- End of Arab solutions - In January 2012, two months after an initial bid to end the violence, leading Arab diplomats adopt a fresh plan that would transfer power from Assad to a coalition cabinet. The Damascus government rejects the proposal and vows to crush rebel movements.

Donald Trump's all-but-dismissal of human rights as a foreign policy principle could land like an earthquake across a Middle East landscape beset by warring factions and beleaguered governments, with some players eyeing the prospect of once unimaginable new alliances.

Syria is the foremost test of Trump's promise of a return to a hard-headed realpolitik and could quickly show whether America is truly abandoning promotion of democracy and the rule of law in a way that could reshape much of the region's post-Cold War, post-9/11 order.

The Islamic State group lost nearly a quarter of its territory in Iraq and Syria last year, according to a report released Thursday by research firm IHS Markit.

Iraqi government forces launched a major offensive to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group on October 17, 2016.

Regime and rebel figures will head to Kazakhstan on Monday for negotiations on ending Syria's brutal war, but are arriving with diametrically opposed approaches to the aims of the talks.

If Barack Obama was elected on a wave of optimism, eight years later, hopes of a post-racial America have soured amid recognition that it takes more than a black president to overcome centuries of racism.

A recent poll confirmed findings of a number of studies published in the final months of the Obama administration: 52 percent of Americans questioned by Gallup said the country had taken a step backwards on issues of race. Just 25 percent thought things had improved since 2009.

An international conference being held in Paris on Sunday is the latest of many bids to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Representatives from around 70 nations are to meet in Paris on Sunday to try to chart a course toward restarting moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Nearly two months into the assault, Turkey has become bogged down in an unexpectedly bloody fight to retake the Islamic State group's last stronghold in northern Syria. It has been forced to pour in troops, take the lead in the battle from its Syrian allies and reach out to Russia for aerial support.

The fight for al-Bab underscores the precarious path Ankara is treading with its foray in to Syria, aimed against both IS militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters. The assault on the town had already driven a wedge between Turkey and the United States, and now the realignment toward Moscow — which supports the government in Syria's civil war — further tests Ankara's alliance both with Washington and with the Syrian opposition.

As Barack Obama prepares to leave office on January 20, here are nine things his presidency may be remembered for:

- Making history -