By Tala Ramadan and Kinda Makieh

DAMASCUS, July 25 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pledged help for Syrian reconstruction on Saturday during the first visit to Damascus by a serving United Nations chief since 2009, before the start of a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa received Guterres at the presidential palace in Damascus, state news agency SANA said, without providing further details.

A crash between two passenger buses in a central-eastern desert region of Syria on Saturday killed at least 35 people, state media said.

News agency SANA, quoting a health ministry official, also said 30 others were injured in the "collision between two passenger buses on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor road".

The interior ministry said the crash was between "a bus carrying a number of internal security forces personnel and a civilian bus", without specifying how many of the casualties were from its forces.

By Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 25 (Reuters) - Palestinian officials welcomed UNESCO's designation of Sebastia in the occupied West Bank as a World Heritage site, hoping it will prevent Israel extending its control at the ancient village, while Israel condemned it as a political decision.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday called for an end to Israeli violations in Syria and urged international support for the country's transition on his first visit under the new authorities following years of civil war.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where they deployed in 2024 after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank village of Tell on Saturday buried four men killed during a clash with Israeli settlers the previous day, local officials said.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the clash in Tell has already had political repercussions.

On Friday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that, following the deaths of two Israelis in the village, he would allow the establishment of more settlements in the region.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the U.S. next week.

Trump's comments came in his speech at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Friday, while he was falsely casting U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer as Palestinian.

"I am going to send him (Schumer) a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week," Trump said.

By Steve Holland and Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday said he would not go forward with a civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia unless the Saudis agreed to a normalization in relations with Israel under theAbraham Accords.

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday that Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had signed an agreement on developing the first commercial nuclear reactors in oil-rich Saudi Arabia and that it would next go to Congress for review.

By David Brunnstrom

July 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly on Friday voted overwhelmingly to extend the term of U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Turk for four more years, despite opposition from Russia and Israel and a U.S. threat to reassess its funding and engagement.

Turk, an outspoken critic of Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's conduct in Gaza, who has also called for investigations into deaths in U.S. immigration custody, had drawn strong opposition from all three countries over his willingness to challenge major powers.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they had launched missile and drone salvos against Saudi Arabia's oil facilities on Saturday, as fighting between regional allies of the United States and Iran intensified on a new front.

WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he trusted China and Russia not to help Iran in the conflict with the U.S., but warned that if they did get involved "it would be very bad for them."

"President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies," he wrote on Truth Social.