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Thousands of mostly pro-Assad supporters flocked to the Syrian Embassy Wednesday to cast ballots in the presidential elections, causing suffocating traffic jams around Beirut.

The embassy opened its doors in the early hours of the morning when hundreds walked to the only polling station available to vote, with Syrian anthems blaring from cars and buses decorated with photos of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah flags.

They partied their way up the 10-kilometer hill toward the Syrian Embassy, waving flags and posters in the oppressive heat. They dodged stick-wielding soldiers at checkpoints and waited for hours in massive lines and heaving scrums of bodies. And finally, tens of thousands of Syrians living here cast their ballots Wednesday as voting started for expatriates ahead of their country's presidential election early next week.

But if there were three names on the ballot -- President Bashar Assad and two carefully vetted members of parliament -- there was no suspense as to the outcome.

The Syrian opposition’s defense minister has resigned after reports of disagreements with the group’s head, opposition sources said on Monday.

Dissident Asaad Mustafa’s resignation from the government-in-exile highlights divisions among President Bashar al-Assad's opponents.

Mustafa, in his sixties,had been appointed to his post in November as part of a plan by the opposition National Coalition to administer rebel-held areas of the war-torn country, according to Reuters news agency.

Jordan said on Thursday that it does not mind allowing Syrians living in it to cast ballots in their country's presidential election at the Syrian embassy in Amman.

Syrian expatriates around the world were invited by the government of their country to go to Syrian embassies and consulates in other countries on May 28 for presidential polls, that are likely to give president Bashar al-Assad a third term in office.

The United Nations and Arab League mediator on the conflict in Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has resigned, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Standing beside Brahimi at UN headquarters in New York, Ban said he "will relinquish his duties effective May 31."

Brahimi, who gave up Tuesday after trying unsuccessfully to mediate an end to Syria's civil war, has spent his career in the diplomatic trenches of the world's most intractable conflicts.

In Syria, campaigning for next month's presidential election is under way. It is the first multi-candidate contest for the post, but critics have derided the process as a sham - and for President Bashar al-Assad's opponents it reinforces the sense that hope is lost.

"This is how the lions look," says one of the many signs around Damascus. It displays a picture of President Assad, in a military outfit, sporting Rayban sunglasses.

As the presidential polls approach, streets are filled with hoardings promoting the election.

The Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said Monday that Germany joined the choir of countries that are trying to disrupt the presidential elections in Syria for being a party in what Syria is witnessing through supporting, funding and arming the armed terrorist groups in order to destroy Syria and its people and to undermine its national decision.

The United States has said it will recognise the offices of the main opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) as a diplomatic foreign mission and announced plans for a $27m increase in non-lethal assistance to rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

The announcement came at the start of a visit to Washington on Monday by a Syrian opposition delegation led by Ahmad Jarba, president of the coalition, in his first official visit to the US since the SNC was set up in 2012.