Syrian-Israeli security pact could be reached within ‘days’, says President al-Sharaa

A security arrangement between Israel and Syria could be reached “in the coming days,” Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday, ahead of a historic trip to the U.N. General Assembly.

In recent days, Syrian and Israeli officials met under U.S. auspices to hammer out details of a pact that would formalize security arrangements between the countries.

However, Sharaa said a full Abraham Accords-style peace is not on the table for now.

He also noted that the future of the Golan Heights, most of which Israel conquered from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and has since annexed, is not being discussed as it is “a big deal.”

“It’s a difficult case — you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa said jokingly.

Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, will visit Washington on Thursday for talks on the permanent lifting of remaining U.S. sanctions against Syria, after he met with Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in London on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump had declared the suspension of part of the sanctions last May after meeting Sharaa in Saudi Arabia.

With their talks being mediated by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, Shaibani and Dermer discussed the details for a security arrangement for some five hours, and made progress toward an agreement, Axios reported.

An earlier report by the outlet said Israel had proposed a map stipulating most of the territory between Damascus and the Israeli border as a three-tiered demilitarized zone, while Israel would withdraw from Syrian territory, except for Mount Hermon.

Al Jazeera reported that Syria’s counterproposal wants Israeli troops to withdraw completely, while also returning U.N. peacekeepers to the buffer zone along the Golan Heights frontier.

Sharaa told the reporters that a new arrangement is necessary, but stressed Israel would have to respect Syrian airspace and its territorial integrity.

The Syrian president, who had been a wanted terrorist less than a year ago, lauded the U.S. for its mediation and denied reports that the White House was pressuring him to reach a deal before the U.N. summit next week.

He also criticized Israel’s “very dangerous” military strikes on his territory, which he said were in contradiction to the American goal of a stable and unified Syria.

Sharaa claimed that the countries had been only “four to five days” away from an agreement in July, but that Israel's actions in support of the Druze community in the southern Syrian province of Suwayda had stalled the talks.

Shaibani’s visit to Washington on Thursday will be the first by a Syrian foreign minister in over a quarter of a century.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Axios he and other senators will discuss lifting the “Caesar sanctions” with Shaibani. The law was enacted in 2020 and sanctioned the Assad regime and its business partners.

Graham explained that he wants to see Syria formally join the coalition against ISIS and progress on a security pact with Syria in exchange for his support.