The U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon says the U.S. lifting sanctions on Syria could encourage more refugees to return.

Syria's foreign minister has arrived in Lebanon's capital, marking a potential breakthrough in relations between the two countries.

The streets of Damascus show little sign a parliamentary election is set to take place.

Saudi Arabia says it will supply Syria with 1.65 million barrels of crude to help the country rebuild its economy and infrastructure after a nearly 14-year civil war.

An official with the U.N. reguee agency UNHCR says that since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in December, some 850,000 Syrian refugees have returned home from neighboring countries.

The top U.N. envoy for Syria is warning that its transition remains “on a knife-edge” and violence could resume at any moment in the southern city of Sweida, which saw deadly clashes last month.

Syria’s state-run news agency says the country’s foreign minister has held a rare meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris.

Iraq’s prime minister has kept the country on the sidelines as military conflicts raged nearby for almost two years.

France’s highest court has upheld some of Bashar Assad’s immunity as a former head of state.

A Syrian government investigation says more than 1,400 people died in sectarian violence along the coast earlier this year.

Syrian government forces have started withdrawing from the southern province of Sweida following days of vicious clashes with militias from the Druze minority.

Syrian officials and Druze leaders have announced a new ceasefire after days of violent clashes, but Israel has continued its airstrikes after intervening.

Syria is working to rebuild its energy sector after years of civil war and crippling sanctions.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has met with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus marking the restoration of relations between the two countries after years of tension.

The death toll from a suicide bomb attack on a church in Syria has risen to 25, state media say.

The U.N. refugee agency says the number of people forcible displaced by violence and persecution around the world has risen to more than 122 million, up by about 2 million from last year and a near-doubling over the last decade.

Syria and Saudi Arabia say hey aim to boost economic cooperation in what strengthens their interests and creates jobs for Syrians after Western sanctions imposed on the war-torn country were eased earlier this month.

Cyprus says it will offer Syrian families money to help them resettle back in their homeland and allow the family head to remain on the island nation for up to three years to work as part of a voluntary repatriation program.

The Trump administration has granted Syria sweeping exemptions from sanctions.

When the leader of Syria shook hands with U.S. President Donald Trump, it was a striking moment for a man who was an al-Qaida fighter in Iraq and was detained by the American military.

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will ease sanctions on Syria could eventually facilitate the country’s recovery from years of civil war and transform the lives of everyday Syrians.

President Donald Trump has met with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani has attended a U_N_ Security Council briefing, raising his country’s new flag at the international body and saying he represents a "new Syria.”.

The U.S. will withdraw about 600 troops from Syria, leaving fewer than 1,000 to work with Kurdish allies to counter the Islamic State group.

Lebanon’s president says the disarmament of the militant group Hezbollah will come through negotiations as part of a national defense strategy and not through “force.”.

As they spend their first Ramadan in their country in years, many Syrians who’ve recently returned from abroad to a homeland they were forced to flee have been celebrating the end of the Assad family’s rule.

For Syrians observing Ramadan, this Muslim holy month is their first in their homeland since the end of the Assad family's iron-fisted rule.

International donors have pledged almost $6.5 billion in aid for Syria.

Syria’s interim president has signed a temporary constitution that leaves the country under Islamist rule for five years during a transitional phase.

United Nations-backed human rights experts allege Israel has caused “disproportionate violence against women and children” during the war against Hamas in Gaza,.

Syria’s interim government has reached a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast.

A long-awaited national dialogue conference intended to help chart Syria’s political future after the fall of former President Bashar Assad is set to begin.

The Syrian factions that toppled President Bashar Assad last month have named an Islamist former rebel leader as the country‘s interim president in a push to project a united front as they face the monumental task of rebuilding Syria after nearly 14 years of civil war.

Syria’s new foreign minister has met with his Qatari counterpart and Qatar’s prime minister in Doha on Sunday.

The top diplomats from Germany and France are in Syria to send what the German minister called a clear signal that a “political new beginning” between Europe and Syria is possible after the ouster of Bashar Assad.

The streets were buzzing with excitement in Damascus as Syrians welcomed in a new year that seemed to many to bring a promise of a brighter future after the unexpected fall of Bashar Assad’s government weeks earlier.

Israel’s military says it intercepted a missile fired toward the country by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Syria’s de facto leader has said it could take up to four years to hold elections in Syria, and that he plans on dissolving his Islamist group that led the country’s insurgency at an anticipated national dialogue summit for the country.

Syria’s embassy in Lebanon has suspended consular services a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports.

A Syrian family that survived a 2013 chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people near the country's capital, Damascus, says the ordeal they experienced haunts them to this day.

A British-based war monitor said clashes between Islamists who took over Syria and supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad’s government have killed six Islamic fighters and wounded others.

Israel’s defense minister has confirmed that Israel assassinated Hamas’ top leader last summer and is threatening to take similar action against the leadership of the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule.

Palestinian health officials say an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in central Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians, including four children.

A Palestinian Health Ministry official says Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.

The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces will stay in a buffer zone on the Syrian border, and specifically on the summit of Mount Hermon, until another arrangement is found "that ensures Israel’s security.”.

Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

Top diplomats from the United States, the Arab League and Turkey have met in Jordan to discuss Syria’s transition after the fall of Bashar Assad's government last weekend.

Like millions of Syrians around the world, the thousands who have settled in the Detroit area are excited about the prospect of visiting now that rebels have overthrown the government of ousted President Bashar Assad.

Exuberant Syrians observed the first Friday prayers since the ouster of President Bashar Assad, gathering in the capital’s historic main mosque, its largest square and around the country to celebrate the end of half a century of authoritarian rule.

Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike flattened a multistory building in central Gaza, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens more.

Many bodies have been found in Syrian detention centers and prisons since President Bashar al-Assad's government fell.

Nearly a decade after hundreds of thousands of Syrians arrived in Germany, many are now well-integrated and settled in jobs — and tens of thousands have gained German citizenship.

Israel says it bombed more than 350 military sites in Syria during the previous 48 hours, targeting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country.

Massive U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria are meant partly as a message to the group and a move to ensure that the insurgents don’t try to take advantage of the chaos following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government.

The dramatic downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad presents possible danger, and an opening, for neighboring Israel.

Germany and several other European countries said Monday they are suspending decisions on asylum claims by Syrian nationals because of the unclear situation in their homeland following the fall of Bashar Assad.

Israeli strikes have hit suspected chemical and long-range weapons sites in Syria and the foreign minister says the aim is to keep them from rebels who seized Damascus.

Tens of thousands of people held in Syria's notorious prisons have been freed in the 10 days since the insurgents began their lightning advance across the country that ended with the toppling of President Bashar Assad.

Syrians poured into the streets in celebration after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.

Syrians poured into the streets in celebration after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.

Russia media say ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad has fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally.

President-elect Donald Trump says the U.S. should avoid engaging militarily in Syria, where an opposition offensive is threatening the rule of the country's Russian- and Iran-allied leader.

The last time Syrian President Bashar Assad was in serious trouble was 10 years ago.

Syrian refugees across Turkey have jubilantly welcomed the downfall of Bashar Assad’s government with many embracing the chance to return to their homeland.

Thousands of people have fled the central Syrian city of Homs, the country’s third largest, as insurgents seized two towns on the outskirts Friday.

The 13-year civil war in Syria has roared back into prominence with rebels' surprise capture of Aleppo, one of the country’s largest cities and an ancient hub of Middle East culture and commerce.

Israel has carried out a series of punishing airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Hundreds of families displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs after the area was pummeled overnight by the heaviest Israeli airstrikes in nearly a year of limited conflict are sleeping in public squares and beaches or in their cars in the city center.

Families fleeing the escalating conflict in Lebanon are pouring into Syria in growing numbers.

A global watchdog report says European Union aid sent to Lebanon in an attempt to regulate migration by sea is funding practices that violate human rights.

A pair of Syrians have created a community that provides support to migrants and vulnerable people in Rome, by sharing the flavors of a homeland torn by civil war.

Results of Syria’s parliamentary elections show that President Bashar Assad’s Baath Party has won a majority of seats, as expected.

Syrians have voted for members of a new parliament in an election that was expected to hold few surprises.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused opposition parties of stoking xenophobia and racism after residents in a neighborhood in central Turkey set Syrian-owned shops on fire.

For the first time in over a decade, 270 Syrians have traveled on a direct flight from Damascus to Saudi Arabia for the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage, according to the Syrian Transportation Ministry.

International donors meeting in Brussels say they will commit 7.5 billion euros, about $8.1 billion, in both grants and loans to support Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger for the rest of this year and beyond.

Syria's devastating civil war, now in its 14th year, remains largely frozen and so are efforts to find a viable political solution to end it.

The European Union has announced an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — that will mostly go to strengthening border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.

Israel’s Foreign Minister has threatened that his country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister has accused the United States of giving Israel the “green light” for a strike on its consulate building in Syria that killed seven Iranian military officials, including two generals.

A top military commander has renewed Iran’s promise to retaliate after an airstrike earlier this week widely blamed on Israel.

The commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has warned that “our brave men will punish the Zionist regime."

Iran has vowed to respond to a deadly airstrike widely attributed to Israel that demolished Iran’s consulate building in the Syrian capital and killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals.

Iranian military officials say an Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

The Syrian military says an Israeli airstrike on a Damascus suburb has killed and wounded several people.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry has recalled its ambassador to Iran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed several civilians.

Two members of Iraqi militia groups have told The Associated Press that overnight airstrikes on eastern Syria killed six Iran-backed militants near a strategic border crossing with Iraq.

The U.N. World Food Program says it will end in January its main assistance program across war-torn Syria, where over 12 million people lack regular access to sufficient food.

The annual meeting of members of the global chemical weapons watchdog has called on countries to prevent the sale or transfer to Syria of raw materials and equipment that could be used to create poison gas and nerve agents.

Syria’s health minister says a drone attack that hit a packed military graduation ceremony in the central city of Homs has killed 80 people and wounded 240.

A war monitoring group says that dozens of Syrians who fled war at home are among the thousands killed and missing in the deadly flooding in Libya.

Anti-government protests in southern Syria have stretched into a second week, with demonstrators waving the colorful flag of the minority Druze community, burning banners of President Bashar Assad, and at one point raiding several offices of his ruling party.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has slammed Turkey and blamed Ankara for the uptick in violence in his war-torn country.

The head of a leading aid group says an impasse at the United Nations over a border crossing with Syria’s last rebel-held enclave is endangering 4.1 million Syrians living there.

As Middle East countries begin to restore relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, many Syrian refugees who fled civil war fear they will be forced to return to their homeland.

The United Nations Security Council's failure to renew the critical flow of international aid from Turkey into opposition-held northwestern Syria has rattled Syrians and social workers.

The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that the 12-year conflict in Syria has pushed 90% of its population below the poverty line and millions face a 40% cut in emergency food aid in July because the $5.4 billion U.N. humanitarian appeal for Syria – the world’s largest – is only 12% funded.

International donors have committed $10.3 billion in aid for millions of Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger.