The civil war may have roughed up the Assad regime a bit, but its core belligerence seems to be intact

The Assad regime doesn't feel it's too beat up from battling everybody from ISIS to US-backed rebels to the Kurds to assert its ultimate designs on a hotly contested piece of real estate:

In a first reaction to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that "Israel will never leave the Golan Heights," Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said Sunday that Syria is prepared to use every possible means to recapture the area, including military means.

"The Syrian Golan is an occupied Arab land according to the UN Security Council's resolutions, and the presence of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Forces proves this," Miqad said in an interview with the Lebanon-based TV channel al-Mayadeen.

"We have never renounced the resistance and we are ready to recapture the Golan in all possible ways, including military ways. Israel wants to provoke us, but we will never surrender," Miqdad added.

He goes on to say that Vladimir Putin is on board with this position.