The United Nations refugee chief says some 200,000 refugees have returned to Syria from neighboring countries since the government of Bashar Assad was overthrown last month.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Almost 30% of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Middle Eastern countries want to return home in the next year, following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, up from almost none last year, the head of the U.N.'s refugee agency said.

Syria’s new administration leader Ahmed al-Sharaa met in Damascus on Saturday with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. The state news agency SANA said the meeting was also attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, without giving details about the content of their talks.

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen urged all parties involved to maintain a credible and effective political transition process in Syria while speaking at a press briefing in Damascus Wednesday.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday his country is ready to welcome UN forces into the UN established buffer zone with Israel.

I can only hope from the bottom of my heart that this is a lesson for the world that we must never allow such cruelties to happen again,’ Volker Turk says in video message from Sednaya Prison - Anadol

A United Nations official called for all parties in Syria to cooperate without “unhelpful rhetoric” as talks continue between the Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) and the new leadership in Damascus.

Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, attends a press conference in Damascus, Syria, on Jan.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on Friday welcomed recent remarks from the United Nations envoy to Syria supporting talks between the SDF and the new administration in Damascus.

In the first visit ever by a U.N. rights commissioner to Damascus, Turk met with the head of Syria's new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and with victims of crimes the conflict.

Syria's defence minister said Wednesday that Damascus was open to talks with Kurdish-led forces on their integration into the national army but stood ready to use force should negotiations fail."The door to negotiation with the (Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces) is currently open,

Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani told the World Economic Forum in Davos that his country offered