Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security, sources say
The contacts mark a significant development in ties between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades, as the U.S. encourages the new Islamist rulers in Damascus to establish relations with Israel and Israel eases its bombardment of Syria.
They also build on back-channel talks via intermediaries since Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Syrian strongman Bashar Assad in December, said two Syrian and two Western sources, as well as a regional intelligence source familiar with the matter.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject for two nations with no official ties and a history of enmity. The direct talks and their scope have not been previously reported.
On the Syrian side, the sources said contacts have been led by senior security official Ahmad al-Dalati, who was appointed governor of the province of Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after the fall of Assad. Earlier this week, Dalati was also put in charge of security in the southern province of Sweida, home to Syria's Druze minority.
In a statement to Syria's government-owned news channel, Ekhbariya, Dalati said, "I categorically deny my participation in any direct negotiation sessions with the Israeli side."
"The Syrian leadership continues to take all necessary measures to protect the Syrian people and defend the sovereignty and unity of the Republic's lands, using all lawful means."
It could not be determined who participated on Israel's side, though two of the sources said they were security officials.
Three of the sources said there had been several rounds of in-person meetings in the border region, including in territory controlled by Israel.
Israel's foreign ministry and Syrian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa confirmed indirect talks with Israel that he said were aimed at calming tensions, a striking admission that followed a report that the UAE was mediating such talks.
Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and took more territory in the aftermath of Assad's ouster in December, citing lingering concerns over the extremist past of the country's new rulers.
It has also waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of the country's military infrastructure, while at the same time lobbying Washington to keep the country weak and decentralized.
But the bombing and the criticism have subsided in recent weeks.
On May 14, a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Sharaa in Riyadh upended decades of U.S. Syria policy, and signaled to Israel's right-wing government that it should work to reach understandings with Sharaa.
The regional intelligence source described Trump's engagement with Sharaa as a pivotal part of a realignment in U.S. policy that upset Israel's post-Assad strategy of exploiting Syria's fragmentation.
Members of Syrian security forces stand guard at a damaged site, after Israel carried out an airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday. |
REUTERS
The relative calm in May has also seen a reduction in tensions around Sweida, which saw days of bloody clashes between Druze armed factions, some of which enjoy Israeli backing, and Sunni Muslim fighters last month.
Amid the violence, Israel had launched a series of airstrikes, including one just outside the presidential palace overlooking Damascus, which it framed as a warning over threats against the Druze, an offshoot of Islam with adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
While the direct talks are currently focused on joint security, such as preventing conflict and reducing Israeli incursions into Syrian border villages, two of the sources said they may help pave the way for broader political understandings.
"For now, they are about peace, as in the absence of war, rather than normalization," said the person familiar with back-channel talks.
Trump indicated after meeting Sharaa that the Syrian leader was willing to eventually normalize ties with Israel, while adding that it would take some time.
Sharaa has not commented on the statement, saying instead that he supported a return to the terms of a 1974 ceasefire agreement that created a U.N. buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
Syria's new rulers have made repeated efforts to show they pose no threat to Israel, meeting representatives of the Jewish community in Damascus and abroad and detaining two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
A letter sent by Syria's foreign ministry to the U.S. State Department last month said "we will not allow Syria to become a source of threat to any party, including Israel."
More recently, Syria's leadership has shown goodwill by approving the handover of a trove of long-dead Israeli master spy Eli Cohen's belongings.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
7 days ago
- Japan Times
Calm reported in Syria's Sweida, as Damascus says truce holding
Residents reported calm in Syria's Sweida on Sunday after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a U.S. envoy signaled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented. With hundreds reported killed, the Sweida bloodshed is a major test for interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, prompting Israel to launch airstrikes against government forces last week as it declared support for the Druze. Fighting continued on Saturday despite a ceasefire call. Interior Minister Anas Khattab said Sunday that internal security forces had managed to calm the situation and enforce the ceasefire, "paving the way for a prisoner exchange and the gradual return of stability throughout the governorate." Images showed Interior Ministry forces near the city, blocking the road in front of members of tribes congregated there. The ministry said late Saturday that Bedouin fighters had left the city. U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said the sides had "navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities." "The next foundation stone on a path to inclusion, and lasting de-escalation, is a complete exchange of hostages and detainees, the logistics of which are in process," he wrote on X. Kenan Azzam, a dentist, said there was an uneasy calm but the city's residents were struggling with a lack of water and electricity. "The hospitals are a disaster and out of service, and there are still so many dead and wounded," he said by phone. Another resident, Raed Khazaal, said aid was urgently needed. "Houses are destroyed. ... The smell of corpses is spread throughout the national hospital," he said in a voice message from Sweida. The Syrian state news agency said an aid convoy sent to the city by the government was refused entry while aid organized by the Syrian Red Crescent was let in. A source familiar with the situation said local factions in Sweida had turned back the government convoy. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Israel sent urgent medical aid to the Druze in Sweida and the step was coordinated with Washington and Syria. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Foreign Ministry and the military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Tribal fighters stand next to a government checkpoint in the town of Busra al-Hariri, east of the city of Sweida, Syria, on Sunday. | AFP-JIJI The Druze are a small but influential minority in Syria, Israel and Lebanon who follow a religion that is an offshoot of a branch of Shiite Islam. Some hard-line Sunnis deem their beliefs heretical. The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence and accused of widespread violations against the Druze. Residents of the predominantly Druze city said friends and neighbors were shot at close range in their homes or in the streets by Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and insignia. Al-Sharaa on Thursday promised to protect the rights of Druze and to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people." He has blamed the violence on "outlaw groups." While al-Sharaa has won U.S. backing since meeting President Donald Trump in May, the violence has underscored the challenge he faces stitching back together a country shattered by 14 years of conflict, and added to pressures on its mosaic of sectarian and ethnic groups. After Israel bombed Syrian government forces in Sweida and hit the Defense Ministry in Damascus last week, Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarization of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida. He also said Israel would protect the Druze. The United States however said it did not support the Israeli strikes. On Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for two days. A Syrian security source said that internal security forces had taken up positions near Sweida, establishing checkpoints in western and eastern parts of the province where retreating tribal fighters had gathered. On Sunday, al-Sharaa received the report of an inquiry into violence in Syria's coastal region in March, where Syrian forces killed 1,500 members of the Alawite minority in June following attacks on security forces. The presidency said it would review the inquiry's conclusions and ensure steps to "bring about justice" and prevent the recurrence of "such violations." It called on the inquiry to hold a news conference on its findings — if appropriate — as soon as possible. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said Friday it had documented the deaths of at least 321 people in Sweida province since July 13. The preliminary toll included civilians, women, children, Bedouin fighters, members of local groups and members of the security forces, it said, and the dead included people killed in field executions by both sides. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another monitoring group, has reported a death toll of at least 940 people. Reporters could not independently verify the tolls.
Japan Times
20-07-2025
- Japan Times
Syria believed it had green light from U.S. and Israel to deploy troops to Sweida
Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south last week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, according to eight sources familiar with the matter. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict." Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community — a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the Defense Ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria — which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone — and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria. On Saturday, Rubio called on the Syrian government's security forces to prevent jihadis from entering and "carrying out massacres" in the south of the country. "If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria ... they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent ISIS and any other violent jihadists from entering the area and carrying out massacres," Rubio said in a statement posted to X. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as two weeks ago in Baku had produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response questions. Israel said Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared al-Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. "It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said. A bedouin fighter stands while holding his weapon after sectarian clashes escalated on Saturday in Syria's predominantly Druze region of Sweida, with machine gun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire, in Sweida, Syria, on Saturday. | REUTERS A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere." A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality." U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared al-Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force." Syria in Transition, an independent monthly journal, citing well-placed sources, said that Syrian authorities misunderstanding of messaging by the U.S. and Israel resulted in the deployment of troops to Sweida. The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations, including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reporters were able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said al-Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned with al-Sharaa. With more blood spilled and distrust of al-Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets." The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there "whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene," the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralized after Bashar Assad's fall. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa, saying he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of the new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. "did not support" Israel's strikes on Sweida last week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three U.S.-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, said he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
NHK
18-07-2025
- NHK
Netanyahu lays down red lines for Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Syrian leaders they have crossed his red lines. He said he will not let Syrian troops move south of Damascus and his military will do what it takes to protect the Druze people. He released a statement on Thursday saying Israel has set a clear policy: "Demilitarization of the region to south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area, that's rule number one. Rule number two is protecting the brothers of our brothers, the Druze at the Druze Mountain." He noted that, "Both those rules were broken by the regime in Damascus." His statement came a day after heavy Israeli airstrikes hit military headquarters and other targets in the Syrian capital. Sectarian violence broke out in the southern city of Sweida over the weekend between local Bedouin tribes and members of the Druze religious minority. The interim Syrian government sent troops to intervene, but they later were targeted by the Israeli airstrikes. The IDF said the attacks were aimed at protecting the Druze. Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed on Thursday to protect the Druze community, and condemned Israel for trying to fracture Syria. Suzuki Hiroyuki, a Middle East expert and project associate professor at the University of Tokyo, said Israel is using its pledge to protect the Druze as a pretext to launch attacks. He said the interim government has not been able to seize control of the whole nation yet and he believes that "Israel is trying to prevent armed militias and Syrian troops from coming in by unilaterally setting up demilitarized buffer zones in southern Syria near the Golan Heights." The situation remains volatile. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli forces have moved across the buffer zone, and advanced into a Druze town inside Syria. It calls the incursion a "rare field development" within the border.
