While a string of Syrian rebel-held towns and villages accepted government rule on Saturday as insurgent lines collapsed in parts of the southwest under an intense bombardment of Bashar Assad's army, Israel-US defense establishment ties tightened during the weekend in Washington.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot held a series of talks with his American counterpart Joseph Dunford about the upcoming developments in Syria and their ramifications on the Syrian Golan Heights.
The two senior officials primarily discussed Israel's concern about the new evolving situation in southwest Syria after Assad completes his takeover of most of the rebel-held territories in the area in the upcoming weeks.
Israel and the US have coordinated ways to prevent Iran from entrenching in the territories Assad's army is recapturing.
Israel has detected that Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Al Quds forces are continuing their deployment in Syria despite recent strikes at Iranian targets attributed to Israel by the foreign media.
It seems quite possible that Eisenkot and Dunford coordinated additional offensive moves planned to be executed by Israel to thwart Iran's entrenchment in Syria, while applying pressure on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to restrain Assad's next expected move to reclaim the Syrian Golan Heights.
During the special overnight operation, some 300 tents, 13 tons of food, 15 tons of baby food, three pallets of medical equipment and medicine and some 30 tons of clothes and shoes were transferred into Syria from four different spots on the border.