Syria expects negotiations to resume soon with Israel over a security deal that Damascus hopes will lead to an Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.
Shaibani said talks over the agreement had been frozen since the start of the Iran war but he expected them to restart, even as he stressed that a lack of trust separates the two sides. The interview came days after Israel bombed a Syrian airbase, an escalation that drew criticism from Washington.
Diplomatic Door Remains Open
"We believe there should be contact, especially with a party that constantly threatens the security of Syria. But if this contact doesn't bring results, then we don't need it," Shaibani said. "We do not trust Israel currently."
He urged Israel to seize what he called a "historic opportunity" while the door for diplomacy remains open. The U.S. has been working for more than a year to broker a security agreement between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a new American ally in the Middle East, but the deal has proven elusive.
Israel has maintained troops in southwest Syria and bombed scores of military sites since Bashar al-Assad was toppled in late 2024, citing security threats. The strikes have continued even as Damascus says it poses no threat to its neighbours.
U.S. Pressure and the Airbase Strike
U.S. special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that Washington was working to establish a mechanism to prevent conflict among Israel, Turkey and Syria. But Shaibani said there was no agreement yet on the mechanism.
He said Israel had bombed the Abu al-Duhur airbase even after Syria conveyed a message that it would not be used as a Turkish base. Contact between Syria and Israel was cut after the airbase strike, Shaibani added.
Israel has tried to maintain its security through brute force and it hasn't succeeded anywhere. I believe negotiations will resume soon.
The U.S. is trying continuously to put pressure on Israel to return to the dialogue table, Shaibani said. Asked how optimistic he was, he replied: "It's very hard to bet on Israel." But Syria had "very great hope" of building stable relationships with its neighbours.
Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948. Israel seized the Golan Heights in 1967. Shaibani said the priority now is to stop Israeli aggression even before reaching a security agreement, and that once that happens, the parties can open the topics of peace and the Golan.
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