A French delegation arrived Tuesday at the country's embassy in Damascus, the first visit of diplomats from France since Bashar al-Assad's ouster by Islamist-led rebels.

Visiting French special envoy for Syria Jean-Francois Guillaume said his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.

Bashar al-Assad said Monday his departure from Syria was not planned and that Moscow requested his evacuation from a military base that was under attack, in the former president's first statement since his ouster.

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles," said a statement on the ousted presidency's Telegram channel, adding "Moscow requested... an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday December 8" after he moved to Latakia early that day.

The Syrian pound has begun to recover against the dollar after president Bashar al-Assad's ouster, moneychangers and traders said Monday as foreign currencies again became available on the local market.

On December 7 -- the day before Damascus fell to a rebel coalition led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group -- the rate had plunged to 30,000 pounds to the dollar, halving the value of the local currency compared to just months previously.

Syria's Kurds, who run a semi-autonomous administration in the northeast, called Monday for an end to all fighting in the country and extended a hand to the new authorities in Damascus.

In a statement at a press conference in Raqa, the Kurdish administration called for "a stop to military operations over the entire Syrian territory in order to begin a constructive, comprehensive national dialogue", more than a week after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad's government.

Governments worldwide are stepping up efforts to engage with Syria's new interim rulers, just over a week after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad, ending decades of brutal rule and civil war.

The lightning offensive that captured the capital Damascus on December 8 led to celebrations across the country and beyond.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for Syrians who sought refuge in his country to return home following the fall of Syria's longtime leader, Bashar al-Assad.

"The consequences of the Syrian war made Lebanon home to the largest number of refugees per capita, with one-third of our population comprising of Syrian refugees", Mikati said Saturday at a Rome political festival.

Israel has launched more than 60 strikes on Syrian territory over the past few hours, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Saturday.

Israel fired 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours Saturday evening, it reported, maintaining a campaign which started after rebel forces toppled president Bashar al-Assad nearly a week ago.

Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli drone strike in the south killed one person on Saturday, the latest deadly raid despite a more than two-week ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"An Israeli enemy drone strike... killed one person" in al-Khardali in the Marjayoun district, the health ministry said in a statement. The official National News Agency reported a car was targeted.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Saturday that Syria's new rulers, who ousted the Lebanese armed group's ally Bashar al-Assad, should not recognize neighboring Israel or establish ties with it.

"We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as an enemy and not normalize relations with it," Qassem said in a televised speech, his first public remarks since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad following an offensive launched on November 27, the same day that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.

Ukraine said on Saturday it had attacked an oil terminal in the western Russian region of Oryol overnight, sparking a fire.

The governor of Oryol said on Telegram that fuel had caught fire at "a facility" in the region after a "massive drone attack".