File image.
Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa on May 7 confirmed that his government was engaged in indirect talks with Israel.
The talks were first reported by Reuters. Citing three people familiar with the matter, the news agency said that the talks began after al-Sharaa’s visit to the United Arab Emirates on April 13, and focused on security and intelligence matters and confidence-building between the two neighboring countries.
One of the sources, a Syrian security official, described the effort to Reuters as currently focused on “technical matters,” and said there was no limit to what may eventually be discussed.
Another more senior security official said that the backchannel was limited strictly to security-related issues, focusing on several counterterrorism files. The source stressed that purely military matters, especially those concerning Israeli army activities in Syria, fell outside the scope of the current channel.
Meanwhile, an intelligence official told Reuters that UAE security officials, Syrian intelligence officials and former Israeli intelligence officials were involved in the talks, among others.
During a press conference following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Sharaa said that the talks were aimed at “easing tensions and preventing the situation from spiraling out of control for all involved parties.”
“The Israeli intervention [military incursion into Syrian territory] constitutes a violation of the 1974 agreement [between Israel and Syria],” he added, emphasizing that his country remains committed to the agreement.
Sharaa also stated that Syria is reaching out to any country with ties to Israel in an effort to pressure it to halt what he described as interventions in Syria.
The indirect talks began before Israel launched last week a series of strikes on Syria, including one that hit the vicinity of the presidential palace in Damascus, as a message to Sharaa in response to threats by the government against the Druze religious minority.
Israel vowed to protect Syrian Druze, citing historic ties with its own Druze community. From its side, the Syrian government condemned the Israeli strikes.
Since assuming power, Sharaa have been working to avoid any confrontation with Israel. The interim government ignored the Israeli invasion of the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights and later strikes which destroyed nearly all of the country’s military capabilities.
A letter sent by Syria’s foreign ministry to the United States State Department last month, seen by Reuters, said, “We will not allow Syria to become a source of threat to any party, including Israel.”
While Israel continues to escalate against Syria’s new rulers, it is yet to take any action that could cause real harm to Sharaa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken credit for the fall of the regime of former president Bahsar al-Assad more than once in recent months. This very much means that it was Israel that opened the road for Sharaa to the presidential palace in Damascus. Thus, it is likely expecting major concessions from his government.
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who do you trust they could say it was biden funding hamas using iran as his intermediary that set shara up if they wanted to.
i know israel funded hamas to destroy the plo to avoid permant regional peace .
this is just the c-suites having a policy sit down with the head of h.r.
so islamists bastards meeting with gulf bastards and shlomo bastards for instructions?
mkay.
and where are the un resolutions against the zionist terrorists for theyr illegal attacs and invasion of south lebanon and syria?
sadly even russia and china keep silent
the un stands on real estate sponsord by rich us jews. thats all you need to know about the un.
inshallah both of these clowns fail miserably, are eventually killed, and saa takes back the country
probably discussing how best to kill christians with the least publicity.
both bibi the frog netanyahu and mohamed the headchoppin scorpion al-julani are going to drown.
wondering why still millions of syrian sunni migrants are still in europe?
dogs making deals with other dogs. nothing surprising here.
dont call them dogs.
any dog on this planet is lightyears better than this scum and bastards.
the designated terrorist al jolani is now a jet setting money international grubber . so he will accept any and all bribes that the support of israel offers . he will take his orders as a good puppet as always !
nuttenyahoo is the biggest terrorist!
this new syrian leader has got to be zelensky’s cousin.