Since yesterday, Syrian opposition sources have reported the capture of several towns and villages in the region. The Saudi-based Al-Arabiya channel cited sources claiming that Assad's forces have retreated from both the Quneitra province and areas they previously controlled on Mount Hermon.

A Hezbollah source told AFP that the group has dispatched 2,000 fighters to the Syrian-Lebanese border near Qusayr. Reuters also reported yesterday that Hezbollah deployed oversight forces to assist Assad's army in the battle for Homs.

Strategic advances by rebels across Syria

The Rebels have made significant advances, seizing control of Aleppo, Hama, Daraa, and Quneitra, as well as numerous other towns and cities nationwide. Reports indicate that Assad's forces have withdrawn from the T-4 military airport, which Iran had used to smuggle weapons into Syria. The base is located east of Palmyra in the heart of the Syrian desert.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Al-Hadath channel quoted an Iraqi security source claiming that hundreds of members of pro-Iranian militias have withdrawn from Syria towards the Al-Qaim border crossing, which connects Syria and Iraq.

Arab media reported this morning that battles between Assad's forces and rebel groups have reached the military academy near Homs in the northwest. Simultaneously, Assad's army and Russian forces are carrying out airstrikes on the Al-Rastan region north of Homs, which is now under rebel control.

In southern Syria, Assad's forces have admitted losing control of the cities of Daraa and As-Suwayda, with the military describing their movements as "redeployments." In northeastern Syria, Kurdish sources informed Arab media that Assad's forces remain in limited numbers in the cities of Al-Hasakah and Qamishli.

In addition, the IDF Spokesperson has stated that a short time ago, an attack by armed militants on a UN post in the Khader area of Syria was identified. The IDF is currently assisting UN forces in repelling the attack. The IDF has deployed reinforced units along the Golan Heights front and will continue to act to protect the State of Israel and its citizens.

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The Syrian rebel offensive, spearheaded by Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group supported by Turkey, commenced on Wednesday. On Sunday, Israeli officials assess that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is allowing Iranian forces into Syria to bolster his regime and counter rebel factions in the ongoing civil war. This move could significantly affect the dynamics along Israel's northern border.

The entry of Iranian forces marks a pivotal shift in the military landscape of the Syrian conflict, intending to secure Assad's regime, suppressing the opposition, and strengthening Iran's regional influence.

Israeli concerns about Iranian proximity to the border

One of Israel's primary concerns has been that Assad, in his bid to navigate the crisis, would increasingly rely on Iran, effectively bringing the Islamic Republic closer to Israel's borders. However, Israeli assessments suggest that the recent offensives in Aleppo and Idlib may be linked to the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

This ceasefire is perceived as a blow to the Iranian axis, potentially encouraging rebel forces. From Israel's perspective, the greater fear lies in the establishment of military camps near the Syrian border and an overall increase in military presence in the country, which could destabilize the fragile quiet along the northern front.

Israel continues to monitor the situation in Syria closely. A senior official told Israel Hayom, "We are prepared for any scenario."

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The United Arab Emirates foreign minister met Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, a sign of improving ties between Assad and a US-allied Arab state that once supported rebels trying to overthrow him.

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Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed is the most senior Emirati dignitary to visit Syria in the decade since the eruption of a civil war in which several Arab states backed mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents against Assad.

Washington, which opposes efforts to normalize ties with Assad or rehabilitate him until progress is made towards a political solution to the conflict, said it was concerned about the move by its ally the UAE.

The foreign minister led a delegation of senior Emirati officials that discussed bilateral relations and cooperation in a meeting with Syrian counterparts, a statement by the Syrian presidency said.

The participants discussed exploring "new horizons for this cooperation, especially in vital sectors in order to strengthen investment partnerships in these sectors," the statement said.

Sheikh Abdullah underlined in his meeting with Assad "UAE's keenness on the security, stability and unity of Syria," UAE's state news agency WAM said.

He also stressed the "UAE's support for all efforts made to end the Syrian crisis, consolidate stability in the country, and meet the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people," WAM reported.

UAE senior official Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the Emirates president, wrote on Twitter that "the UAE continues to build bridges, boost relationships, and connect what was cut off... and will be keen to spare the region further congestion and continuous conflicts."

A correspondent for Lebanon's All-Manar TV, which is run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Assad ally, said heavy security had been observed on the road from Damascus airport to the city.

The UAE has been at the forefront of efforts by some Arab states to normalize ties with Damascus and earlier this year called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League. It reopened its embassy in Damascus three years ago.

Jordan and Egypt, both US allies, have also taken steps toward normalizing relations since Assad, with Russian and Iranian help, defeated rebels across much of Syria, apart from some northern and eastern areas that remain outside his grasp.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington was concerned by the meeting "and the signal it sends," and had told the UAE that it will not "support efforts to normalize or to rehabilitate Bashar al-Assad, who is a brutal dictator."

"We urge states in the region to carefully consider the atrocities that this regime, that Bashar al-Assad himself has perpetrated on the Syrian people over the last decade, as well as the regime's ongoing efforts to deny much of the country access to humanitarian aid and security," Price said.

Washington has also said it will not lift sanctions, including measures that can freeze the assets of anyone dealing with Syria, regardless of nationality.

The UAE may have asked Damascus not to trumpet the visit due to sensitivities in its ties to the United States, said Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma. "No one wants to get their head too far over the parapet," he said.

Last month, King Abdullah of Jordan spoke to Assad for the first time in a decade, and the border between the countries was reopened for trade. The Egyptian foreign minister also met his Syrian counterpart in September, the highest level contact between the countries since the civil war began.

"Both the UAE and Egypt have long believed that the Damascus government serves as a break on the spread of Islamist groups in the region," Landis said. Investment is expected once Syria is readmitted to the Arab League, he added, though private firms would wait to see how the United States would respond first.

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The sudden return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul's airport have raised concern in European countries of a potential refugee crisis.

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Haunted by a 2015 migration crisis fueled by the Syrian war, European leaders desperately want to avoid another large-scale influx of refugees and migrants from Afghanistan. Except for those who helped Western forces in the country's two-decade war, the message to Afghans considering fleeing to Europe is: If you must leave, go to neighboring countries, but don't come here.

"It must be our goal to keep the majority of the people in the region," Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said this week, echoing what many European leaders say.

European Union officials told a meeting of interior ministers this week that the most important lesson from 2015 was not to leave Afghans to their own devices, and that without urgent humanitarian help they will start moving, according to a confidential German diplomatic memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Austria, among the EU's migration hard-liners, suggested setting up "deportation centers" in countries neighboring Afghanistan so that EU countries can deport Afghans who have been denied asylum even if they cannot be sent back to their homeland.

The US and its NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate thousands of Afghans who fear they'll be punished by the Taliban for having worked with Western forces. But other Afghans are unlikely to get the same welcome.

Even Germany, which since 2015 has admitted more Syrians than any other Western nation, is sending a different signal today.

Several German politicians, including Armin Laschet, the center-right Union bloc's candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, warned last week that there must be "no repeat" of the migration crisis of 2015.

French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that "Europe alone cannot shoulder the consequences" of the situation in Afghanistan and "must anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows."

Britain, which left the EU in 2020, said it would welcome 5,000 Afghan refugees this year and resettle 20,000 Afghans in coming years.

Besides that, there have been few concrete offers from European countries, which besides evacuating their own citizens and Afghan collaborators, say they're focusing on helping Afghans inside their country and in neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

Europe "should not wait until people stand at our external border," EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johanson said.

EU Council President Charles Michel acknowledged the challenges facing Europe when he visited Madrid on Saturday to tour Spain's emergency hub for Afghan refugees.

"Partnerships with third-party countries will be at the heart of our discussion in the European Union. We have to adopt strategies that ensure migration is possible in an orderly and consistent fashion," he said. "We need to find that balance between the dignity of the European Union and the capacity to defend European Union interests."

Greece, whose scenic islands facing the Turkish coast were the European point of entry for hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others six years ago, has made clear it doesn't want to relive that crisis.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said Greece won't accept being the "gateway for irregular flows into the EU," and that it considers Turkey to be a safe place for Afghans.

Such talk makes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan see red. His country already hosts 3.6 million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of Afghans, and he has used the threat of sending them to Europe for political leverage.

"Turkey has no duty, responsibility or obligation to be Europe's refugee warehouse," Erdogan warned in a speech Thursday.

The Turkish president talked about migration from Afghanistan in a rare phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday, and also is discussing the issue with Iran.

Attitudes toward migrants have hardened in Europe following the 2015 crisis, fueling the rise of far-right parties like the Alternative for Germany, the biggest opposition party in parliament ahead of Germany's parliamentary election next month.

Even in Turkey, migrants from Syria and Afghanistan, once treated like Muslim brethren, are increasingly viewed with suspicion as the country grapples with rising inflation and unemployment.

Acknowledging the public's "unease" about migration, Erdogan noted how his government has reinforced the eastern border with Iran with military, gendarmerie, police and the new wall, which has been under construction since 2017.

AP journalists near the Turkish border with Iran encountered dozens of Afghans this week, mostly young men, but also some women and children. Smuggled across the border at night in small groups, they said they left their country to escape the Taliban, violence and poverty.

"The situation in Afghanistan was intense," said one young man, Hassan Khan. "The Taliban captured the whole of Afghanistan. But there is no work in Afghanistan, we were compelled to come here."

Observers say there are no indications yet of any mass movement across the border. Turkish authorities say they have intercepted 35,000 Afghans entering the country illegally so far this year, compared with over 50,000 in all of 2020 and more than 200,000 in 2019.

UNCHR estimates that 90% of the 2.6 million Afghan refugees outside of the country live in neighboring Iran and Pakistan. Both countries also host large numbers of Afghans who left in search of better economic opportunities.

By comparison, about 630,000 Afghans have applied for asylum in EU countries in the past 10 years, with the highest numbers in Germany, Hungary, Greece and Sweden, according to the EU statistics agency.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it's not a forgone conclusion that the Taliban takeover will result in a new refugee crisis.

"I would warn against a self-fulfilling prophecy," he told AP. Afghans are "scared, bewildered but also hopeful that a long, long war will be over and maybe now they can avoid the crossfire."

He said much depends on the Taliban allowing development and humanitarian work to continue.

"If you would have a collapse of public services and if there would be a major food crisis, there will be, for sure, a mass movement of people," Egeland said.

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It was easier for him to make ends meet at the height of his country's civil war, when rebels regularly lobbed mortars into Damascus from their strongholds on the outskirts of the city.

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In the past year, as the Trump administration tightened sanctions on Syria and re-imposed sanctions on its chief regional ally, Iran, living conditions have become steadily worse, compounding the daily struggles of a worn-out population that has lived through eight years of conflict.

"The economic sanctions are affecting the whole country," said Haji Abed, sitting behind the wheel of his car in an eastern Damascus neighborhood that until last year was a front-line with insurgents. "People can't take any more," added the gray-haired man in his late 50s.

Sanctions by the US, European Union and some Arab countries have been in place since 2011, after Syrian President Bashar Assad's security apparatus cracked down on protests against his rule. The sanctions targeted the oil industry, money transfers and a number of institutions and officials, including Assad.

The Trump administration has hiked up the punishment, particularly by moving to stop oil exports by Iran – including its shipments to its ally Syria. In November, the US Treasury Department added a network of Russian and Iranian companies to its blacklist for shipping oil to Syria and warned of "significant risks" for sanctions violators. In early July, a supertanker likely carrying around 2 million barrels of Iranian crude was detained in Gibraltar on suspicion of violating EU sanctions against oil shipments to Syria.

The results have hit hard on a population that has been traumatized by a civil war that has killed nearly half a million people, and displaced nearly half the population over the past eight years.

Once an oil exporter, Syria now relies on imports, and higher fuel costs caused by the sanctions have pushed up prices in nearly every sector. The currency lost a third of its value in 2019 alone, and now stands at 600 Syrian pounds to the dollar, compared to 47 at the onset of the conflict. Eight out of 10 Syrians live below the poverty line, making less than $100 a month, according to the UN.

Haji Abed says he makes 12,000 pounds ($20) a day, but after paying for fuel he is left with only about $5 a day. His rent is $35 a month. What's left after that is barely enough for food and other expenses, he said.

He used to be able to buy unlimited subsidized fuel. But since the new US sanctions, the government set a monthly cap – private car owners can buy 100 liters (26 gallons) a month, taxi drivers 350 liters (92 gallons). Those who want more must pay the market price, which is double.

The government says Syria's losses from sanctions are in the billions of dollars.

The ban on money transfers and other measures have particularly hurt medicine and pharmaceutical industries, a stinging loss for a country that once produced 90% of what its people needed. Syria now relies on imports of vaccines, medicines for cancer, blood derivatives and dialysis supplies.

This triggers sporadic shortages. "Three months ago, there was no baby formula available," said a pharmacist, Samir Aftimos. "People with children ran from one pharmacy to another to search for it." The crunch was relieved when Iran sent supplies.

Because of shipping restrictions, most medicine imports must be brought by land from Lebanon, increasing the cost, Assistant Health Minister Habib Abboud told The Associated Press. Companies have a hard time collecting or making payments abroad and several foreign medical companies that used to work in Syria are canceling their licenses, Abboud said. Syria is looking to firms in Russia, China, Iran and India to step in.

Around 25 of Syria's 70 medicine factories were destroyed or badly damaged during the conflict, Abboud said. He said many have been repaired as government forces regained large parts of Syria over the past three years. That has brought production nearly back up to pre-war levels, according to the Health Ministry.

One of the largest Syrian companies affected by the war is The Arabian Medical Co., or Thameco, whose factory in the eastern Damascus suburbs of Mleiha was taken by insurgents and heavily damaged during the war. The state-owned company now works out of a Damascus building that used to be a storage space, where dozens of employees produce painkillers, antibiotics and other medicines.

But it is difficult to obtain raw materials and spare parts, said Thameco's general manager, Fidaa Ali. "Most foreign companies complied with the conspiracy of the economic sanctions and the imposed embargo on Syria," he said.

EU and US sanctions also target hundreds of entities and individuals, many of them businessmen close to Assad's leadership. Washington adds names to the list each year. The most recent, added in June, was businessman Samer Foz and his family, and their Aman Holding company. Washington accused Foz of making a fortune by developing lands confiscated from Syrians who fled the country.

Fares Shehabi, a lawmaker and prominent industrialist, calls EU sanctions on him "unfair" and says they have cost him millions of dollars.

"No one can claim not to have been affected by the sanctions. It is not only the people who are under sanctions like myself," said Shehabi, who is based in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial center.

Tayseer Darkalt, who owns a factory in Aleppo producing machines that make potato chips, says that because of sanctions he can't import or export products or spare parts. With no money transfers, he travels abroad to collect payments in cash, but that adds airplane and hotel costs. And he's wary of carrying a lot of cash.

"The sanctions are harming normal citizens. They are not punishing the government. They are punishing us."

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