Senior U.S. diplomats visiting Damascus on Friday met with Syria's de-facto new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa and held a "good" and "very productive" meeting with him about Syria's political transition and decided to remove a bounty on his head.

Senior U.S. diplomats visit Damascus, as Washington and Brussels weigh lifting sanctions against the country’s transitional government.

Ms Barbara Leaf, the US diplomat for the Middle East, says the talks with the new Syrian leader were positive. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Following the fall of Assad's regime, tensions across the Middle East have continued to remain high prompting concerns from countries in the area.

Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria's new leader, a senior U.S. diplomat said Friday, following "positive messages" from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism.

Israel’s military has seized a strategic mountain top in its contested border area with Syria and advanced on positions beyond it, reshaping the frontier potentially for the long term.

A Syrian Air flight from Damascus landed in Aleppo on Wednesday, as the transitional government tries to demonstrate its ability to run the war-shattered country.

A coalition of Syrian rebels say they have toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad and captured the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Will he walk the walk and not just talk the talk? And if he doesn’t win in the elections, will he peacefully stand aside for whoever does win?” one analyst said.

Rebel forces in Syria are building a transitional government after toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad in a lightning-quick advance across the country.