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.

U.S. diplomats visiting Damascus held Washington's first in-person official meetings with Syria's new de facto rulers led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Friday and discussed with the former al Qaeda affiliate the future of Syria's political transition.

The high-level delegation arrived to engage in talks with Syria's interim leadership, the State Department confirmed early Friday.

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.

Turkey expects foreign countries will withdraw support for Kurdish fighters in Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, President Tayyip Erdogan said, as Ankara seeks to isolate Kurds who have long fought alongside U.

The new Syrian government is engaging with everyone, so why aren’t we engaging back?

It was the first time U.S. officials have formally visited Damascus since the U.S. Embassy there was shuttered in 2012 as the country descended into a savage civil war. Backed by Russia and Iran, the Assad regime is believed to have killed tens of thousands of people, while many more were tortured in crowded, dismal secret prisons.

The first appearance of a formal US delegation in more than a decade is a sign of dramatic shifts since Assad's fall.

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Even with hopes running high, so much can go wrong when a country ousts a longtime dictator and tries to start anew.

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