Syria’s Overseas Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has met with Israeli intelligence officers in Jordan, in keeping with Syrian state media, as the 2 sides work to de-escalate tensions following an Israeli assault on a Syrian airbase close to the Turkish border.
Syria’s Sana information company, citing a diplomatic supply, stated the talks had been mediated by america and concerned a “high-level Israeli delegation”.
Beneficial Tales
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The AFP information company reported that al-Shaibani met the pinnacle of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company, Roman Gofman.
In keeping with Sana, the discussions “targeted on establishing sensible mechanisms to halt Israeli assaults, arrests and concentrating on operations” in addition to “reviving negotiations for an enduring safety settlement between the 2 sides”.
In addition they mentioned efforts to ease tensions between Israel and Turkiye and to stop their rivalry from spilling onto Syrian territory, Sana reported.
The US has sought to dealer a safety settlement between Israel and the federal government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for greater than a yr. Israel has launched tons of of strikes on Syria for the reason that fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and despatched troops right into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that had lengthy separated Israeli and Syrian forces within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It additionally bombed the Abu Duhur airbase in northwestern Idlib on Thursday, claiming the assault was to stop Turkish troops from deploying on the base, a declare Syria and Turkiye have denied.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have additionally traded barbs for the reason that incident, with tensions excessive between the 2 leaders.
In keeping with Sana, the Syrian aspect confused throughout Sunday’s talks “that Syria is a sovereign state with the complete proper to rebuild and develop its nationwide military and decide its alliances and partnerships consistent with its nationwide pursuits”. The Syrian aspect rejected “any preparations or mechanisms that will limit these sovereign rights,” it stated.
Syria’s instant priorities within the talks remained an Israeli withdrawal to positions held earlier than al-Assad’s overthrow and the complete restoration of a 1974 disengagement settlement, Sana reported.
The Syrian officers additionally reaffirmed Damascus’s sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, it added.
Israel’s ‘purple traces’
Israeli media reported that the talks had been “optimistic” and stated Israeli officers had adopted a lot of purple traces going into talks.
These embrace stopping Turkish navy exercise in Syria, holding the Syrian aspect of the Golan Heights demilitarised, “making certain the safety” of Syria’s Druze group and stopping the Syrian military from buying sure strategic weapons techniques.
In addition they conditioned any withdrawal from Syrian territories occupied by Israel on “diplomatic achievements”.
Throughout earlier rounds of US-mediated talks, Syria and Israel had agreed on a joint mechanism to share intelligence and defuse tensions. However the negotiations froze on the finish of February, when the US and Israel launched their struggle on Iran, and not using a date set for resumption.
In an interview printed forward of the assembly, al-Shaibani instructed Reuters information company that Damascus didn’t belief Israel, however that the door remained open for diplomacy. He stated Syria had reduce off contact fully after the Israeli assault on Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase final week.
Al-Shaibani stated the 2 sides had agreed on paper to “virtually every little thing” across the starting of the yr, together with preparations for safety zones in southern Syria and a buffer zone the place solely UN forces could be current.
Hassan Mneimneh, a political analyst and researcher on the Center East Institute, instructed Al Jazeera that the present spherical of talks was unlikely to de-escalate tensions given Israel’s observe file.
“It’s fairly the other, which means now that Syria has indicated its need to have the state of affairs de-escalate, Israel is probably going to herald extra calls for and have the Individuals principally negotiate these new calls for with Syria, towards any type of growth of Turkish presence within the north and past the north,” he stated.
Mneimneh added that Syria was “afraid that the nation will change into a battlefield” between Israel and Turkiye and was involved about Israel’s territorial seize within the nation, stretching “all the way in which to Hermon, to Jabal al-Sheikh in its totality virtually, and all the way in which to 3 southern provinces”.
So, from the Syrian perspective, Mneimneh added, the talks with Israel appear to be aimed toward avoiding “the disintegration of Syrian authority” in addition to making certain any battle between Israel and Turkiye doesn’t forestall Syria from “forming, establishing, consolidating polity after the autumn of” al-Assad.
