President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Friday that Syria was negotiating with Israel to reach a security agreement that would see Israel leave areas it occupied after the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
As the Islamist-led forces toppled Assad on December 8, Israel deployed troops to the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since the armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has also launched hundreds of air strikes on military targets in Syria and carried out incursions deeper into the south. Syria's new authorities have refrained from responding to the attacks.
"We are now in a state of negotiations and dialogue on the issue of a security agreement," Sharaa said in an interview with state television channel Alekhbariah.
"Israel considered that with the fall of the regime, Syria has quit" the 1974 disengagement agreement , "even though Syria, from the first moment, expressed its commitment" to the accord, he said.
"Now, negotiations are underway on a security agreement to return Israel to where it was before December 8," Sharaa said.
Israel and Syria have no diplomatic relations, with the two countries technically at war since 1948.
Last month, Syrian state media said Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer had met in Paris to discuss de-escalation and the situation in Druze-majority Sweida province after deadly sectarian violence.
Also, last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel was engaged in talks aimed at the demilitarization of southern Syria.
With Centcom commander
During the day, al-Sharaa met the new head of the US military's Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, in Damascus, his office and CENTCOM said.
The United States has for years maintained a troop presence at a series of bases in Syria as part of efforts against the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014.
"The meeting addressed prospects for cooperation in the political and military fields in the service of shared interests and consolidating the foundations of security and stability in Syria and the region," the Syrian presidency said in a statement.
The meeting, which was joined by US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, "reflected the positive atmosphere and shared interest in strengthening the strategic partnership and expanding channels of communication between Damascus and Washington," it added.
A CENTCOM statement said Cooper and Barrack thanked Sharaa for "his support to counter ISIS in Syria," using another acronym for the jihadist group.
"Eliminating the ISIS threat in Syria will reduce the risk of an ISIS attack on the US homeland while working towards President (Donald) Trump's vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors," CENTCOM said.
They also "offered praise to Syria for supporting the recovery of US citizens inside the country," it added.
Several US citizens went missing or were killed during Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011.
In April, the Pentagon announced it would roughly halve the number of troops it has in the country to fewer than 1,000 in the coming months as part of a "consolidation" of US forces.
Barrack said in June that the military would eventually close all but one of its bases in Syria.
The United States periodically targets the jihadist group's remnants with raids or strikes to prevent its resurgence.
Cooper was appointed in early August to lead CENTCOM, the US military command responsible for the Middle East.
Earlier this month, he was in Israel on his first visit to the US ally since taking up post, the Israeli military said.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, despite opening an unprecedented dialogue with the Islamist transitional authorities.
AFP
Comments