Washington is pressuring top Lebanese officials not to allow Hezbollah or its allies to nominate the country's next finance minister, five people with knowledge of the matter said, in an attempt to limit the Iran-backed group's sway over the state.

BEIRUT, - Former allies and self-declared enemies of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad are flooding the country's digital space with disinformation aimed at destabilising the fragile new order by sparking sectarian strife, analysts say.

The US military said it killed a senior operative of al-Qaida's Syria branch in an airstrike on northwestern Syria on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister visits Lebanon on Thursday in the first trip to Beirut by Riyadh's top diplomat in 15 years, seeking a commitment to reform as the Gulf state reasserts sway in a country where Iranian influence is waning.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat said Friday the kingdom was seeking to help Syria's new authorities secure the lifting of international sanctions, during his first visit to Damascus since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, on his country's first high-level visit to Beirut after years of strained ties, said Thursday that he believed crisis-hit Lebanon's new leaders could spearhead long-sought reforms.

Saudi Arabia will continue supporting Lebanon and is optimistic about the country's future after a ceasefire brought an end to a war between Israel and the militant Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, the kingdom's foreign minister said from Beirut.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat landed in Beirut on Thursday to meet the country's new leadership in the first visit by a high-ranking official from the kingdom after more than a decade of strained ties.

A cousin of the former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad who was involved in suppressing the protests that started the 2011 uprising has been detained inside Syria, according to state news agency SANA.

Local and international experts are filling a government void, and have begun the process of mapping and assessing sites

BEIRUT - Washington is pressuring top Lebanese officials not to allow Hezbollah or its allies to nominate the country's next finance minister, five people with knowledge of the matter said, in an attempt to limit the Iran-backed group's sway over the state.