Iran and Israel were heading towards a direct confrontation in one of the most keenly contested territories in the Middle East, as forces loyal to the Assad regime and Tehran routed rebels in Syria.
The advance brings the Middle East’s fiercest enemies within sight of each other for the first time since the Syrian war began, an outcome feared by Israel.
The Syrian army, supported by Iranian militias, was pushing towards the Golan Heights, a strip 40 miles west of Damascus snatched by Israel in 1967.
The Golan remains contested but under Israeli control. For the past six years it has been buttressed on the Syrian side by rebels and hard line jihadist groups, including Islamic State.
The latest assault began as Hossein Jaberi Ansari, an Iranian foreign ministry official, met President Assad in Damascus on Sunday. The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to co-operation in the conflict.
President Assad’s forces are pushing into the rebel pocket next to the Israeli border from the east, after their victory in neighbouring Deraa last week.
Read the report by Hannah Lucinda Smith in The Australian (from The Times).