Iran's president said Sunday his country's nuclear deal with the West would create better prospects for faster solutions in Syria and Yemen, two of the Middle East's worst conflict zones.

In a live appearance on state television, Hassan Rouhani said the July 14 agreement had shown diplomacy and engagement were the only way to solve serious political problems and end crises.

Syrian troops backed by Hizbullah fighters on Sunday pressed a counteroffensive against rebels near President Bashar Assad's coastal heartland, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 100 fighters have been killed in three days of intense clashes in the Sahl al-Ghab region of central Hama province.

Al-Qaida's Syria branch has posted a video purportedly showing its capture last week of members of a U.S.-trained rebel force it accuses of aiding U.S.-led air strikes against its fighters.

The Pentagon denied on Thursday that any graduates of its training program for moderate rebels had been captured in Syria.

Lebanon has submitted an official request to the United Nations chief to extend the term of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, reported al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday.

The request was made in accordance to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and without making alterations to UNIFIL’s mission.

At least 10 people were executed on Saturday in Syria's Aleppo city on the orders of a religious court dominated by al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two of the executed were accused of adultery, with the rest accused of collaboration with the Syrian government.

Syrian businessman Wahib Merhi slammed media reports that fugitive Hisham Daou, accused of killing Major Rabih Kahil, is under his protection, MTV said on Saturday.

On Friday, MTV reported that Daou has fled Lebanon to the Syrian province of Latakia and is in the custody of Merhi.

Nearly 40 government and opposition fighters have been killed as Syrian regime forces pushed rebels back from an area bordering President Bashar Assad's heartland, a monitor said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 20 regime forces and 19 rebels from the Army of Conquest alliance had been killed in 24 hours of clashes in Hama province's Sahl al-Ghab region.

Al-Qaida's Syria affiliate launched a fierce assault on the headquarters of a U.S.-trained rebel group Friday, while claiming responsibility for capturing members of the "moderate" force earlier this week. 

Al-Nusra Front unleashed its offensive on the base of the Division 30 unit in northern Aleppo province, a monitor said, sparking clashes and air raids by a U.S.-led coalition that killed at least 18 of the jihadists.

U.S.-led coalition air strikes destroyed early Friday two key bridges used by the Islamic State group on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border, a monitoring group said. 

The Pentagon confirmed strikes in the area, and a senior U.S. officer said they will have a "profound impact" on IS abilities to carry out operations in the neighboring and strategically important Iraqi province of Anbar.

After billions of dollars spent and more than 10,000 extremist fighters killed, the Islamic State group is fundamentally no weaker than it was when the U.S.-led bombing campaign began a year ago, American intelligence agencies have concluded.

The military campaign has prevented Iraq's collapse and put the Islamic State under increasing pressure in northern Syria, particularly squeezing its self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa. But intelligence analysts see the overall situation as a strategic stalemate: The Islamic State remains a well-funded extremist army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadis as quickly as the U.S. can eliminate them. Meanwhile, the group has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Afghanistan.