The new leadership of the country said the rebel coalition leader, Ahmed al-Shara, would serve as president during a transitional period.

The new Syrian government also said that the armed groups which ousted the regime in December have been dissolved.

Assad last month was named the country's interim president on Wednesday as former insurgents cancelled the existing constitution, saying a new charter would be drafted soon.

A delegation of Russian officials is in Damascus, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. It is the first such visit to Syria since the fall in December of former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow.

Russia deployed troops to Syria in 2015 to support Assad regime's brutal crackdown against anti-government forces.

Syria’s new leaders said Wednesday they had discussed “transitional justice” with the first Russian official delegation to visit Damascus since the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad. The visit came with Russia keen to secure the fate of two military bases in Syria and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered