Syria expects negotiations with Israel over a security agreement to resume soon, with Damascus hoping the deal will ultimately lead to an Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said.
In an interview with Reuters in Damascus on Saturday, days after Israel carried out strikes on a Syrian airbase, al-Shaibani said Syria’s immediate priority was to halt Israeli attacks and establish confidence-building measures that could pave the way for renewed diplomacy.
The United States has been seeking to broker a security agreement between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. However, efforts have stalled as Israel has deployed troops inside Syrian territory and carried out strikes on government facilities, citing security concerns.
Al-Shaibani said negotiations had been frozen since the outbreak of the Iran war but expressed confidence that they could resume soon. He added that communication between Damascus and Tel Aviv had stopped following the Israeli strike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase.
“We do not trust Israel currently,” al-Shaibani said, while stressing that Syria remained open to dialogue if it produced tangible results.
He also said Washington was continuing to pressure Israel to return to the negotiating table, adding that Syria hoped to establish stable relations with its neighbors.
Syria Says Israel Lacks Will to Reach Agreement
Tensions escalated on Tuesday when Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase, saying Syria was preparing to allow Turkish forces to deploy there. Both Damascus and Ankara denied the Israeli allegations.
Al-Shaibani said Syria understood Israel’s security concerns but insisted that Israel must also respect Syria’s sovereignty and security, including over its airspace and Israeli military operations and arrests in southern Syria.
According to the Syrian foreign minister, the two sides had reached agreement “on paper” on most elements of a potential security deal earlier this year. The proposed agreement would require Israel to halt attacks on Syria and would be linked to an Israeli withdrawal from territory seized after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
The agreement would also establish several security zones inside Syria near the Israeli border, including a buffer zone where only United Nations forces would be present, as well as areas where Syrian forces would be deployed in varying numbers.
However, al-Shaibani accused Israel of avoiding implementation, saying Damascus had not seen a genuine Israeli willingness to reach an agreement.
Damascus Puts End to Israeli Attacks First
Syria and Israel have technically remained in a state of war since 1948, while Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 war.
Al-Shaibani said Damascus’ priority at this stage was to stop Israeli military action before moving on to broader issues such as a peace agreement and the Golan Heights.
US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said Washington was working to establish a mechanism aimed at preventing clashes between Israel, Turkey and Syria.
Al-Shaibani said no final agreement had been reached on the mechanism, stressing that it should focus on stopping attacks and creating conditions for a security agreement rather than consolidating what he described as the Israeli occupation of Syrian territory.
He added that Israel carried out the Abu al-Duhur strike despite Syria having conveyed that the airbase would not become a Turkish military base.
