My view is that Syria is now inhabited primarily by Russians and Iranians. The former population of Arabs has decamped to Turkey, Greece and Germany, with a fair few scattered amongst other developed countries in Europe.
Iranians generally eschew direct participation with Israel unless their hand is forced by the humiliation of the mad mullahs. Instead, they prefer poor people in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to do the resisting for them.
Pretty much the same for Russia, though they welcome volunteers from any part of the globe to be cannon fodder in the killing fields of Ukraine.
Whether President Bashar al-Assad is still alive is very much a moot question judging by the pic. It looks very much like a cardboard cut out. I suspect that Russian/Iranian AI doesn’t quite stretch to creating a convincing walking/talking image of him yet.