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The United Nations intends to offer all kinds of help to the Syrian people, UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen told Syrian rebel leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and caretaker prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir during a meeting in Damascus, according to a statement released by the UN envoy's office on Monday.

Pedersen is in Syria to hold discussions focused on advancing the political process and addressing the challenges facing the war-ravaged country.

"The change we're now seeing after the fall of the Assad regime has been immense, creating great hopes, but there are many challenges still ahead," he said upon his arrival on Sunday.

The envoy's visit comes when multiple foreign governments and blocs, including the EU, were reaching out to Syria's new administration.

A Qatari delegation also landed in Syria to meet transitional government officials.

The Gulf country reaffirmed its "full commitment to supporting the Syrian people... following the success of their revolution", Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman told the emirate's official news agency.

Qatar's embassy is set to resume operations Tuesday, 13 years after it closed in the early stages of the anti-government uprising that turned into years of civil war.

Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored ties with Assad's Syria.

Turkey, which funds the Syrian National Army and holds considerable sway in the northwest, reopened its Damascus embassy on Saturday after 12 years.

Western overtures

Additionally, the UK's Foreign Minister David Lammy said London had established diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that led the offensive that ousted Assad.

They remain "a proscribed terrorist organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact," said David Lammy who also announced an aid package for Syrians.

Washington's top diplomat Antony Blinken said his country has made "direct contact" with HTS, despite having designated the group as terrorists in 2018.

A French diplomatic team is due in Damascus on Tuesday to "retake possession of our real estate" as well as "establishing initial contact" with the new authorities, said acting Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

They would also be "evaluating the urgent needs of the population", he added.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also announced on Monday the bloc's envoy to Syria was going to Damascus to talk to the transitional government.

"Our top diplomat in Syria will go to Damascus today. We'll have the contacts there," Kallas said in a press conference ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Russian retreat, Israeli aggression

Meanwhile, as other country’s move in to establish ties with Syria’s new government, Russia appears to be on the way out.

On Sunday, its foreign ministry said it had evacuated some of its diplomatic staff from Syria Sunday, "by a special flight of the Russian Air Force from the Hmeimim airbase" in Syria.

Along with Russian personnel in Damascus, the evacuation also included diplomats representing Belarus and North Korean, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Russia, along with Iran, was one of Assad’s key backers in the 13-year civil war that killed over 500,000 people, with Moscow directly intervening with brutal attacks on rebel-held and rebel-supporting civilian areas on behalf of the ousted dictator.

Despite overtures from the West, one of the major issues faced by the Syria’s transitional government is the continued aggression of Israel.

Early Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right reported that Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in the country's coastal Tartus region.

The bombardment is "the heaviest strikes" in the area in more than a decade, said the UK-based Observatory.

Israel has also ordered troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, a move denounced by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and which the UN said violated a 1974 armistice.

Agencies contributed to this report