DAMASCUS, Syria: President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced Friday that Syria was negotiating with Israel for a security agreement that would have Israel withdraw from territory it occupied following the December ouster of Bashar al-Assad.
With Islamist-led forces overthrowing Assad on Dec. 8, Israel sent forces into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights that has divided Israeli and Syrian troops since an armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has also made scores of airstrikes against Syrian targets and made incursions further into the south. Syria’s new government has not retaliated against the strikes.
“We are now in a state of negotiations and dialogue on the issue of a security agreement,” Sharaa said in a state television channel Alekhbariah interview.
He reported that Israel felt that Syria had “quit” the 1974 disengagement accord following Assad’s regime collapse, “despite the fact that Syria, from the very beginning, reaffirmed its commitment” to the agreement.
“Today, negotiations are ongoing on a security accord to bring Israel back to where it was on December 8,” Sharaa stated.
Israel and Syria do not have diplomatic relations, and the two nations are technically in a state of war since 1948.
Syrian state media reported last month that Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer had met in Paris to negotiate de-escalation and the situation in Druze-majority Sweida province after deadly sectarian attacks.
And last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel was engaging in talks for demilitarization of southern Syria.
During the interview, Sharaa unveiled that Syrian forces had secret talks with Assad’s main ally Russia while conducting the offensive that ultimately overthrew the long-standing leader.
“When we arrived at Hama in the battle of liberation, there were some negotiations between us and Russia,” Sharaa said.
President says Syria in talks Israel on security deal 2025
When troops reached Homs further south, Russia “kept away from the battle… as part of an agreement reached between us”, he added.
Sharaa also pointed out how his troops refrained from targeting Russia’s Hmeimim air base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
Russia’s Tartus naval base and Hmeimim air base are Moscow’s sole official military bases outside of the former Soviet Union.
