Syria, Israel hold US-mediated talks in Jordan to de-escalate tensions

As the two sides work to de-escalate tensions after an Israeli attack on a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border, syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has met with Israeli intelligence authorities in Jordan, according to Syrian state media.

Key points

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have additionally traded barbs since the incident, with tensions high between the two leaders.
• Syria's immediate priorities in the discussions ⁠remained an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before al-Assad's overthrow and the full restoration of a 1974 disengagement agreement, Sana noted.
• The AFP news agency documented that al-Shaibani met the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Roman Gofman.
• The US has sought to broker a security agreement between Israel and the administration of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for more than a year.
• The Syrian authorities additionally reaffirmed Damascus's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, it continued.

Syria's Sana news agency, citing a diplomatic source, remarked the negotiations were mediated by the United States and involved a "high-level Israeli delegation".

For context, the AFP news agency documented that al-Shaibani met the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Roman Gofman.

According to Sana, the discussions "focused on establishing practical mechanisms to halt Israeli attacks, arrests and targeting operations" as well as "reviving negotiations for a lasting security agreement between the two sides".

They additionally discussed efforts to ease tensions between Israel and Turkiye and to prevent their rivalry from spilling onto Syrian ‌territory, Sana noted.

Notably, the US has sought to broker a security agreement between Israel and the administration of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for more than a year. Israel has introduced hundreds of strikes on Syria since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and sent troops into a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that had long separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It additionally bombed the Abu Duhur airbase in northwestern Idlib on Thursday, claiming the attack was to prevent Turkish troops from deploying at the base, a claim Syria and Turkiye have denied.

According to Sana, the Syrian side stressed during Sunday's discussions "that Syria is a sovereign state with the full right to rebuild and develop its national army and determine its alliances and partnerships in line with its national interests". The Syrian side rejected "any arrangements or mechanisms that would restrict these sovereign rights, " it remarked.

Notably, the Syrian authorities additionally reaffirmed Damascus's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, it continued.

Israeli media documented that the negotiations were "positive" and noted Israeli office-holders had adopted a number of red lines going into negotiations.

These include preventing Turkish military activity in Syria, keeping the Syrian side of the Golan Heights demilitarised, "ensuring the security" of Syria's Druze community and preventing the Syrian army from acquiring certain strategic weapons systems.

They additionally conditioned any withdrawal from Syrian territories occupied by Israel on "diplomatic achievements".

During previous rounds of US-mediated discussions, Syria and Israel had agreed on a joint mechanism to share intelligence and defuse tensions. When the US and Israel introduced their war on Iran, without a date set for resumption, but the negotiations froze at the end of February.

In an interview published ahead of the session, al-Shaibani informed Reuters news agency that Damascus did not trust Israel, but that the door remained open for diplomacy. He remarked Syria had cut off contact entirely after the Israeli attack on Syria's Abu al-Duhur airbase last week.

Al-Shaibani remarked the two sides had agreed on paper ⁠to "almost everything" around the beginning of the year, including arrangements for security zones in southern ⁠Syria and a buffer zone where only UN forces would be present.

Hassan Mneimneh, a political analyst and researcher at the Middle East Institute, informed Al Jazeera that the current round of negotiations was unlikely to de-escalate tensions given Israel's track record.

"It's quite the opposite, meaning now that Syria has indicated its desire to have the situation de-escalate, Israel is likely to bring in more demands and have the Americans basically negotiate these new demands with Syria, against any kind of expansion of Turkish presence in the north and beyond the north, " he remarked.

Mneimneh continued that Syria was "afraid that the country will become a battlefield" between Israel and Turkiye and was concerned concerning Israel's territorial grab in the country, stretching "all the way to Hermon, to Jabal al-Sheikh in its totality almost, and all the way to three southern provinces".

So, from the Syrian perspective, Mneimneh continued, the negotiations with Israel seem to be aimed at avoiding "the disintegration of Syrian authority" as well as ensuring any conflict between Israel and Turkiye does not prevent Syria from "forming, establishing, consolidating polity after the fall of" al-Assad.

Taken together, the developments around syria, Israel hold US-mediated talks in Jordan to de point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.