Saudi Arabia said early on Friday that it has contributed $100 million to northeast Syria for "stabilization projects" in areas once held by the Islamic State group and now controlled by U.S.-backed forces.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington said the money "will save lives, help facilitate the return of displaced Syrians and help ensure that ISIS cannot reemerge to threaten Syria, its neighbors, or plan attacks against the international community." ISIS is an alternate acronym for the militant group.

Lebanon has rejected the position of the head of the U.N. refugee agency, who said it was too early to talk about a mass return of Syrian refugees because the war-torn country is still too dangerous.

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that conditions in Syria now are stable in many cities and provinces.

Rebels controlling several towns in southern Syria were on Friday considering a deal for a regime takeover in exchange for an end to fierce bombing, state media and a monitor said.

Facing Russian and regime bombardment and abandoned by international backers Jordan and the United States, rebels in southern Syria are left with few options -- all of them unsavory. 

The rebels in southern Syria targeted by a major government offensive were long supported by Washington and seen as symbolizing relatively moderate opposition to Damascus.

French cement giant Lafarge was charged Thursday with complicity in crimes against humanity and financing terrorists for paying millions to jihadists, including the Islamic State group, to keep a factory open in war-torn Syria.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russian forces would remain in Syria as long as it was in Moscow's interests, despite earlier announcing Russia's mission in the war-torn country was largely completed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Thursday called for dialogue between Israel and Iran following Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria that marked a sharp escalation between the two enemies. 

A suspected chemical attack in Syria's Eastern Ghouta sparked international outrage Sunday, as state media reported that the last rebel holdouts in the onetime opposition stronghold had agreed to evacuate.

State news agency SANA, citing a government source, said fighters with the Jaish al-Islam rebel faction had agreed to leave Eastern Ghouta's main town of Douma within 48 hours.

Eastern Ghouta's six-year rebel rule was in its dying moments Friday as fighters evacuated one of the Syrian enclave's three remaining pockets and a deal was reached for another.