Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said he would be ready to host US President Barack Obama in Syria to discuss Middle East peace efforts, in an interview aired Friday by Britain's Sky News.

U.S. President Obama has decided to return an American ambassador to Damascus following a break of more than four years, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who overseas the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) struck a heated debate with Israeli ambassador Israel Michaeli Thursday.