Officially, Syria has continued to reject normalisation with Israel, citing the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, which it illegally annexed during the 1967 war, as well as repeated attacks on the country since the overthrow of Assad.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head.

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.

Trump says we might normalize relations with Syria: Last year, Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed. Now, President Donald Trump is in the Middle East, exploring normalizing relations with the new government of Syria and promising to lift sanctions.

With the fall of the Assad regime, a change of Syrian leadership presented an opportunity for Israel to soothe relations with its neighbour and alleviate trouble at the border, but the Netanyahu government's choice,

Jordan and Turkey on Monday denounced Israel's intervention in Syria as destabilising to the country, amid regional changes caused by the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime last year. Since Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) took power in Damascus,