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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Syrian and an Israeli official met in Baku on Saturday on the sidelines of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to Azerbaijan, a Damascus diplomatic source said.
'A meeting took place between a Syrian official and an Israeli official on the sidelines of Sharaa's visit to Baku,' the source told AFP, on the condition of anonymity.
The meeting discussed 'the recent Israeli military presence in Syria,' according to the source, who added that Sharaa did not take part.
It also came as Washington is trying to mend ties between the two countries. On May 14, President Donald Trump called on Sharaa to normalize ties with Israel during a meeting in Riyadh hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and attended remotely by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In a statement following the meeting, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time that Trump urged Sharaa to 'sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel.'
The Abraham Accords are a series of normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries - beginning with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020 - brokered by the US during Trump's first term in office. These accords established formal ties in areas like diplomacy, security, and trade.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syria in an effort to destroy Damascus's military stockpiles and prevent munitions and projectiles from falling into the hands of the new authorities, which Israeli authorities have described as 'extremists.'
Israel has also sent troops across the border into a buffer zone east of the annexed Golan Heights, justifying the move as a precaution amid political instability in Syria.
In late June, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said that Israel was interested in making peace and normalizing relations with Syria and Lebanon.
But Damascus responded to the initiative and said that peace with Israel was 'premature,' and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday stressed that normalization with Israel 'is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy.'
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The posts on Fatah's X account: on the left – "The martyred hero Muhammad Abed, who carried out the self-sacrifice operation today near Bethlehem"; on the right – "Glory bends its knee to you" An announcement issued by the Fatah-associated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades[9] said: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claim responsibility for the Hebron combined [shooting and stabbing] attack, in which a Zionist security guard was killed… The fighters of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades continue their heroic operations against the Zionist enemy forces as part of the Al-Aqsa Flood war… As part of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade's response to the occupation's ongoing aggression, this afternoon our fighters carried out… a heroic combined [shooting and stabbing] attack, in which they managed to seize the weapon of a security guard after they stabbed him and killed him. Then they confronted the enemy forces in the Gush Etzion settlement and shot at those present. [Their goal was] to reach heaven. The heroes who carried out this operation were the self-sacrificing hero Mahmoud Yousuf Muhammad Abed (23) [and] the self-sacrificing hero Malik Ibrahim Abd Al-Jabbar Salem (23)…"[10] The announcement issued by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades The Terrorists Trained At The Qatar Police College As mentioned, the two terrorists received training at the Qatar Police College, as evident from their Facebook accounts. They both listed the Qatari capital, Doha, as their place of residence. Abed also shared a photo of the college insignia, and Salem explicitly stated that he was a graduate of the college. It should be noted that this college has also trained police officers for Hamas.[11] Facebook accounts of Mahmoud Abed (@ and Malik Salem (@ Photos circulated on social media show the two wearing uniforms of PA police officers. Officer Malik Salem in uniform upon his graduation from the Qatar Police College ( July 10, 2025) Officer Mahmoud Abed in uniform ( July 10, 2025)
