Al-Sharaa: Syria Pursuing Security Deal With Israel
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- Ahmed al-Sharaa revealed in an exclusive Al Jazeera interview that Syria is actively working to reach a security agreement with Israel with the participation of several countries, and expressed hope it could serve as a gateway to comprehensive peace.
- Al-Sharaa assured that any deal would not compromise Syria's right to the occupied Golan Heights, held by Israel since 1973, and noted Syria is avoiding clashes amid repeated Israeli incursions and strikes in southern Syria since he came to power in December 2024 after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government.
- Al-Sharaa confirmed Syria has no intention of military intervention in Lebanon and said Damascus supports restricting weapons and decisions of war and peace exclusively to the Lebanese state, warning that chaos in Lebanon would have direct and immediate repercussions on Syria.
- Al-Sharaa argued that lifting US and other countries' economic sanctions alone would not be effective unless Syria is also removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
- Al-Sharaa acknowledged a delay in implementing the internal agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but affirmed the government remains fully committed to its success.
- Al-Sharaa announced Syrian authorities have established a special committee to manage people missing during Syria's 2011-2024 war, a figure the UN estimates at roughly 100,000 forcibly disappeared, while Syria's National Commission on Missing Persons believes as many as 300,000 may be missing.
Why it matters: A Syria-Israel security arrangement would mark the first formal framework between the two countries since the 1973 war, with Damascus drawing a hard line on the Golan as non-negotiable. Al-Sharaa's explicit non-intervention pledge narrows the risk of Syrian entanglement in Lebanon's Hezbollah-Israel conflict, while linking sanctions relief to removal from the terrorism list gives Washington concrete leverage in any deal.
