Donald Trump’s pick to oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion spy budget is facing renewed scrutiny over an unannounced trip to Syria in 2017 where she met with the now-deposed dictator twice.

Syrian leader al-Sharaa reportedly also demands reparations as Moscow delegation seeks to secure strategic power bases.

Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump's nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, will testify Thursday morning at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The 43-year-old former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and combat veteran would oversee the nation's 18 spy agencies.

Weeping, Fairuz Shalish grasps the red earth at an unmarked grave in Syria that she believes may hold her son, one of tens of thousands of people who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.Thousands poured out of the country's web of prisons in the final days of Assad's rule and after Islamist-led rebels toppled him on December 8.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will visit Damascus on Thursday, Qatar's Al Jazeera reported, as Syria's new interim government begins a political transition after Islamist rebels ousted the Assad regime last year.

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

Al-Sharaa is not willing to continue cooperation with Moscow without 'concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction, and recovery' after years of support for the Assad regime

Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad's ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported.Sharaa was appointed "as the country's president in the transitional phase",

Sharaa, the leader of the main rebel group who led the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, has been named Syria's transitional president, the country's military command announced on Jan. 29.

DAMASCUS - Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was declared president for a transitional phase on Jan 29, tightening his hold on power less than two months after he led a campaign that toppled Bashar al-Assad.

Assad, fled to Moscow last year after being ousted in a lightning rebel offensive that ended five decades of rule by the Assad family.