Syrian President Shaara conditions security deal on Israeli withdrawal from Golan Heights, claims Trump supports him

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa laid out his positions on a number of topics, including the talks about a security arrangement with Israel, in an interview with The Washington Post following his historic visit to the White House on Monday.

Before the first-ever visit by a Syrian president, reports indicated that a new security arrangement might be announced. However, the discussions appear to be ongoing despite no official statement being made.

The interviewer asked al-Sharaa how he planned to “protect Syrian sovereignty,” given the “repeated attacks by the Israeli military” against his country.

After the collapse of the Assad regime, Israel destroyed most of Syria’s heavy military equipment and, several months later, targeted sites and forces affiliated with al-Sharaa’s new regime after they took part in attacks on the Druze community in southern Syria.

Sharaa responded by noting that the 1974 Disengagement Agreement following the Yom Kippur War had held for 50 years, claiming that Israel was the one to violate it.

Israel argues that the agreement was nullified when the Syrian army disintegrated and abandoned its posts, allowing Islamist groups to approach the border.

Sharaa claimed that Israel “expanded their presence in Syria, expelled the U.N. [peacekeeping] mission and occupied new territory. They have conducted over 1,000 airstrikes in Syria since Dec. 8, and that included bombing the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense.”

“But because we want to rebuild Syria, we didn’t respond to these aggressions,” he said, claiming Israel’s actions are motivated not by security concerns but “their expansionist ambitions.”

The former terrorist noted that “direct negotiations” with Israel are ongoing and had advanced “a good distance” toward an agreement.

“But to reach a final agreement, Israel should withdraw to their pre-December 8 borders,” Sharaa said.

“The United States is with us in these negotiations, and so many international parties support our perspective in this regard. Today, we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”

When asked whether he would agree to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand to demilitarize the region south of Damascus, which is the area closest to the Israeli border, Sharaa said it would be “difficult.”

“Because if there is any kind of chaos, who will protect it? If this demilitarized zone was used by some parties as a launching pad for hitting Israel, who is going to be responsible for that? And at the end of the day, this is Syrian territory, and Syria should have the freedom of dealing with their own territory,” he argued.

“Israel occupied the Golan Heights in order to protect Israel, and now they are imposing conditions in the south of Syria in order to protect the Golan Heights. So after a few years, maybe they will occupy the center of Syria in order to protect the south of Syria. They will reach Munich on that pathway.“

On Tuesday, Syria’s information minister confirmed that Sharaa had signed a document of cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, fulfilling one of the major goals of the visit alongside sanctions relief for Syria.

Sharaa began fighting ISIS long before his Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group broke out of a small enclave around the city of Idlib at the end of 2024 to bring down the Assad regime, Syrian officials and Western diplomats affirmed to The New York Times.

After serving as a leading figure in the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, Sharaa split from the group to form a slightly less radical rebel coalition and began covertly assisting the anti-ISIS coalition around 2016.

The personal sanctions against Sharaa for being a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” were lifted only days ahead of his visit.

According to Reuters, ISIS has reportedly attempted to assassinate Sharaa in two separate plots over the past several months.

Syrian state media reported that security forces arrested more than 70 terror suspects over the weekend in a nationwide operation targeting ISIS cells across the country.