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.

"I believe there will be violent fighting, the end of which we do not know," a top Syrian Democratic Council official told Newsweek.

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.

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

A Pentagon spokesman said the increase was unrelated to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces in early December.

The Pentagon announced the US currently has “approximately 2,000” troops in Syria, more than double the previously disclosed number of 900, a Defense Department spokesperson said at a press briefing on Thursday.

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.

A senior delegation of U.S. diplomats arrived in Syria to meet with the new de facto rulers, looking to understand more about how they intend to govern.

The U.S. has said 900 troops were in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, announced on Thursday that 2,000 are there.

After public protests and then rebellion erupted in Syria in 2011, Assad’s regime clung to power through systemic torture and relentless military campaigns with support from Iran, Russia, and an array of allied militias.

The U.S. officials in Damascus are also looking for signs of Austin Tice, a missing American journalist, as well as other U.S. citizens.