Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview aired Sunday that his country is working toward a security agreement with Israel, which he said could eventually pave the way for comprehensive peace between the two neighbors. In excerpts from the interview set to air on Al Jazeera later in the day, Sharaa said that several countries are involved in the negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem, which he said is focused on reaching an arrangement that would see the Israeli military leave the buffer zone it seized after the 2024 ouster of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
The two countries, which have no formal relations and are officially in a state of war, have since been engaged in several rounds of US-backed talks, and in January agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism, as well as encouraging diplomacy and commercial opportunities between them. Talks for a wider security deal, aimed at reviving a 1974 disengagement agreement that established a UN-monitored buffer zone between Israel and Syria after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, are ongoing.
Sharaa said that he hoped such an agreement would lead to comprehensive peace talks with Israel, without Syria relinquishing its claim to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move that Syria and most countries don’t recognize. He further told the Qatari outlet that Syria had no interest in a confrontation with Israel and was seeking to avoid one. (Ed note: So, if Israel will, 1) get its IDF out of the "buffer zone" in Syria, 2) give back the Golan Heights, and 3) return to the 1967 boarder lines, Syria might talk with them. What a guy!) (Read More)
