Syria’s government has been forced to deny rumours that president Bashar Assad had fled the country following a march by insurgents across the country to the edge of Damascus.
The rebels' moves around the capital came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of the southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters.
The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations.
As they have advanced, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army.
For the first time in the country's long-running civil war, the government now has control of only four of 14 provincial capitals: Damascus, Homs, Latakia and Tartus.
The UN's special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an "orderly political transition”.
Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Mr Assad's chief international backer, said he feels "sorry for the Syrian people”.
It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a yearslong siege.
Amid the developments, Syria's state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the country, saying he is performing his duties in Damascus.
US president-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, posted on social media that the United States should avoid engaging militarily in Syria.
Mr Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation of UN Resolution 2254 would be announced later.
The resolution, adopted in 2015, called for a Syrian-led political process, starting with the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections.
