A year after taking power, Syria’s President al-Sharaa accuses Israel of ‘exporting’ its Gaza conflict, says he wants peace

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa significantly sharpened his tone toward Israel on Saturday, as the country and the Syrian diaspora around the world began celebrating one year since the collapse of the Assad regime.

At the time, al-Sharaa and his Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham rebel alliance broke out of an enclave surrounding the northern town of Idlib, which they had controlled for several years.

Al-Sharaa’s forces spearheaded a surprise offensive that broke the regime’s defenses and captured the capital Damascus within weeks.

Over the weekend and leading into Monday, Syrians celebrated the end of the decade-long iron grip that the Assad regime had on the country. Celebrations included a military parade in Damascus.

However, Syria has not been reunited since the Kurdish-dominated northeast and the majority-Druze Suwayda province have not agreed to submit to the new regime, after government troops failed to prevent, and sometimes even participated in repeated attacks by Islamist terror groups against minorities.

Al-Sharaa’s government has claimed to seek peace with Israel, and the U.S. has pressured both sides into negotiations aimed at reaching a security arrangement, with the hope of leading to a broader peace later on. But negotiations have stalled in recent months after initial optimism.

On Saturday, al-Sharaa sharpened his tone toward Israel while speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, accusing it of fighting “ghosts.”

After the fall of the Assad regime, Israel captured the former demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights frontier, and has conducted numerous airstrikes and ground raids against various terror groups and weaponry that it considers could eventually pose a risk to Israel's security.

Al-Sharaa claimed that he has been sending “positive messages regarding regional peace and stability,” but Israel had rejected them while pursuing “aggression” and “extreme violence” in the name of security.

“Israel manages its crises in the region by exporting crises to other countries – in an attempt to evade the horrific massacres it committed in the Gaza Strip – acts as if it is fighting ghosts, and justifies its actions with security concerns and unrest, projecting the events of October 7 onto everything that is happening around it,” al-Sharaa charged.

His comments came shortly after Israel’s recent ground raid in the town of Beit Jinn (in Syria) ran into an ambush by a terror group which reportedly had some ties to Syrian intelligence officials. In an exchange of fire, six Israeli soldiers were wounded while Israel airstrikes killed at least 13 Syrians.

Al-Sharaa has particularly rejected Israel’s demand to keep the entire south of the country, between Damascus, the western border with Israel and the southern border with Jordan, as a demilitarized zone. He also claimed Trump supports his demand for Israel to completely withdraw from Syrian territory.

Israel has signaled its intent to maintain, for the foreseeable future, its military position on the strategic Syrian portion of Mount Hermon, which overlooks large parts of southern Syria as well as Lebanon.

Al-Sharaa said he seeks a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, noting that “in one way or another, it is a successful agreement.”

“Seeking other agreements such as a demilitarized zone... could lead us to a dangerous place,” he added.

He also reiterated his calls on the international community to pressure Israel, hoping to find agreement on a formula for “reasonable” security demands.

“There are currently negotiations, and the United States is participating and engaged in those negotiations,” he said.