Syria's Al-Sharaa to visit Saudi Arabia on Monday: report

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sources familiar with the matter told Syria TV.

The president will deliver a speech at the Future Investment Initiative conference, which is taking place from 27 to 30 October in Riyadh.

Some 8,000 participants representing governments, multinationals and investment funds are expected to attend the annual gathering.

This will be Al-Sharaa's third trip to the kingdom since being appointed Syria's interim president in January following the overthrow of the Assad regime.

Following his visit in February, Saudi Arabia signed off on a multi-billion-dollar investment package, a new oil supply agreement, and agreed with Qatar to help fund the salaries of public-sector workers.

In May, Saudi Arabia hosted a brief meeting between Al-Sharaa and Donald Trump during the US president's Gulf tour.

Renewed clashes in northern Syria

Clashes broke out between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces in north-eastern Syria overnight on Saturday, according to local media.

The fighting occurred in two towns close to the Euphrates River in Deir Ez-Zour province, Syria TV reported.

No casualties were reported.

Government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have engaged in intermittent clashes in north-eastern Syria.

Most of the violence has occurred in Aleppo and Deir Ez-Zour province, where the two sides have clashed on both banks of the Euphrates.

Fighting in the Aleppo countryside earlier this month led to the deaths of a number of fighters and civilians.

The ongoing clashes come amid a continued standoff between the government and Kurdish authorities over reintegrating the autonomous region into the rest of the country.

The Kurds are pushing for greater decentralisation, whereas the government has offered only limited autonomy, fearing that such a move would fuel separatism in other parts of the country.

An agreement signed between the two sides in March to reintegrate the region into state institutions and hand over control of strategic sites to the government is yet to be implemented.

Voting in the recent parliamentary election did not take place in the Kurdish-controlled provinces of Hasakah and Raqqa.