Syria’s foreign minister says door open for diplomacy with Israel
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani says the door for diplomacy with Israel is open, urging it to seize a “historic opportunity”. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, published on Sunday, al-Shaibani said he expects the talks over a security deal that would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory to resume soon.
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: “We do not trust Israel currently.” Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa shakes hands with his US counterpart, Donald Trump [File: Reuters]Al-Sharaa has said Syria poses no threat to other countries and that it is instead focused on rebuilding after 14 years of civil war.
- Fact 2: In the days after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in 2024, Israel seized territory in southwest Syria, citing the need to safeguard its citizens against attack, and bombed dozens of Syrian military sites.
- Fact 3: Syria’s Abu al-Duhur base following Israeli strikes, August 18, 2026 [Reuters]Israeli attacks cast doubt on will to make deal Tensions over Syria were brought into focus last week when Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur airbase, saying Damascus was about to allow Turkish forces to deploy there.
- Fact 4: However, he said, Israel had sought to evade implementation, adding: “We did not see they had the real will to reach an agreement.” A fire broke out in Syria, seen from Majdal Shams, near the ceasefire line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, July 16, 2025 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]Golan Heights a sticking point Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani says the door for diplomacy with Israel is open, urging it to seize a “historic opportunity”. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, published on Sunday, al-Shaibani said he expects the talks over a security deal that would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory to resume soon.
Everything you need to know about the Syria – Israel deal in Paris Analysis: Syrian airbase attack is an Israeli message to Damascus, Ankara Syrian official says ‘no plans’ to establish Turkish military presence He said negotiations over the security agreement were frozen at the start of the US-Israel war on Iran and that no date has been set for a resumption of talks. Al-Shaibani also stressed that Damascus’s priority is to halt Israeli attacks, saying confidence-building steps were needed in this direction. The United States has been trying to broker a security deal between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a new US ally in the Middle East, for more than a year.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
Original source: Al Jazeera
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