Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani on Friday set a clear condition for a possible agreement with Israel.
Speaking to the London-based magazine Al-Majalla, Shibani made clear that “we will not sign an agreement with Israel without a withdrawal to the December 7 line”, a reference to the day before the fall of the regime of former President Bashar Al-Assad, after which the IDF captured the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, in order to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel.
The Syrian Foreign Minister’s comments echo the stance of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In an interview with the Washington Post during his visit to Washington last week, al-Sharaa revealed that Syria is engaged in direct negotiations with Israel, but stressed his demand that Israel withdraw from territories captured after a group of rebels led by al-Sharaa toppled the Assad regime.
“We have gone a good distance on the way to reach an agreement. But to reach a final agreement, Israel should withdraw to their pre-Dec. 8 borders,” al-Sharaa said. “Today, we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”
Asked whether Syria would agree to demilitarize the region south of Damascus, al-Sharaa rejected the idea. “To talk about an entire region demilitarized, it will be difficult, because if there is any kind of chaos, who will protect it? If this demilitarized zone was used by some parties as a launching pad for hitting Israel, who is going to be responsible for that?”
He added, “At the end of the day, this is Syrian territory, and Syria should have the freedom of dealing with their own territory.”
Earlier this week, Israeli sources told Kan 11 News that negotiations toward a security agreement between Israel and Syria have reached a deadlock, stressing that Israel has rejected al-Sharaa’s demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from all positions captured by the IDF following the fall of Assad.
The sources added that Israel would consider withdrawing from some of those positions only in exchange for a comprehensive peace agreement with Syria – not merely a security arrangement – and that no such agreement appears to be on the horizon at this time.
In September, al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus that ongoing negotiations with Israel on a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days”.
At the time, he stated that if the security pact is successful, it could lead to “additional agreements”, but also clarified that a normalization or peace deal with Israel are not on the table at this time.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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