Israel and Syria have recently engaged in direct talks, including face-to-face meetings, with the goal of reducing tensions and avoiding conflict along their shared border, according to sources.
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 al-Assad in December, said two Syrian and two Western sources, as well as a regional intelligence source familiar with the matter.
Scope Of Direct Talks
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.
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 Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed indirect talks with Israel that he said were aimed at calming tensions. A report said that the UAE was mediating such talks.
On May 14, a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Sharaa in Riyadh upended decades of U.S. Syria policy, and signalled 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.
Broader Understandings?
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.
“For now, they are about peace, as in the absence of war, rather than normalization,” said the person familiar with backchannel 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 October 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.
(With inputs from Reuters)
