In December, a consortium of rebel factions led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham unexpectedly toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled Syria for five decades. The new regime in Damascus inherited a country ruined by a 13-year civil war.

Syrian authorities in Damascus this week detained two senior officials of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and briefly detained and questioned the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, FLP-GC, that since its founding had been a key ally of Assad.

Ankara, in line with its own security and threat assessments in the region, is open to addressing any issue that would serve bilateral cooperation with Damascus, say diplomatic sources - Anadolu Ajans

The EU said that it would monitor developments in Syria to see ... announced it was lifting sanctions on a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and state-run media outlets.