As a sign of rapprochement, the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has expressed his readiness for holding talks with the US President Barack Obama in Damascus, reported Press TV.
"We would welcome him in Syria, definitely. I'm very clear about this," Assad told Sky News in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
The Syrian president said he would welcome a closer dialogue with the United States.
"Any summit between any two presidents is something positive. That doesn't mean we have to agree about everything, but when we discuss this is how we can close the gap," Assad said.
Earlier on Thursday, Syria's First Lady Asma Al-Assad, in a separate interview with Sky News, said that she was optimistic about the new US administration.
Last week, Obama said he would return an ambassador to Syria, filling a post that has been vacant for four years and marking an acceleration of Washington's engagement with the Arab world.
The US withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest against Syrian actions in neighboring Lebanon.
During Thursday's interview, Assad suggested that direct talks with Israel could resume, but it would highly depend on "the principles of peace, the mechanism and the role of the different parties, including the arbiter, like the United States, or any other interested country in the peace."