Israel is "interested" in striking "peace and normalization" agreements with its neighbors Lebanon and Syria, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.
"Israel is interested in expanding the Abraham Accord circle of peace and normalization," Saar said at a news conference, referring to US-sponsored agreements signed in 2020 by Israel with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. "We have an interest in adding countries, Syria and Lebanon, our neighbors, to the circle of peace and normalization while safeguarding Israel's essential and security interests," he added.
At the same news conference in Jerusalem, Saar clarified that the occupied Golan Heights "will remain part of" Israel under any potential peace agreement with Syria.
"In any peace agreement, the Golan will remain part of the State of Israel," he stated, referring to the territory Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations.
AFP
Comments