US Envoy to Syria Says Syria Authorities ‘Carrying Out Quiet Talks with Israel'
In an interview, Barrack stressed that the Syrian government is not interested in war with 'Israel' and called for Syrian authorities to be given a chance to present their new approach
The comments come after Israeli media revealed this week that senior Syrian officials reportedly said that 'direct daily dialogue has been taking place with Israel in recent days'.
A Syrian official familiar with the details of the talks confirmed that Damascus is not ruling out the possibility of reaching a peace deal with 'Israel', before the end of US President Donald Trump's term.
The latest developments come after Syria's President Ahmed Al-Sharaa recently said that indirect talks have been taking place with Israel through international mediators.
In a meeting with dignitaries and officials from the Quneitra governorate and the occupied Golan Heights, Al-Sharaa said that Damascus was also working to stop continued Israeli attacks in southern Syria.
Normalisation ?
Earlier this week, 'Israel's national security' chief, Tzachi Hanegbi, further said that there has been direct contact between 'Israel' and the Syrian government, noting that the two sides have been discussing the possibility of normalizing relations.
In a speech made during the Israeli Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee session, Hanegbi said he is personally overseeing security and political coordination with Damascus, suggesting that talks have moved beyond the point of indirect negotiations.
The head of the 'Israeli national security' council claimed that both Syria and now Lebanon could potentially normalize relations with 'Israel', following the Abraham Accords signed with other Arab countries in the region.
The prospect of normalizing times also coincides with comments from Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, who said in a podcast interview this week: 'I'm very upbeat about the potential for an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon, and that may actually precede Saudi Arabia. It'll happen with a wink from Saudi Arabia.'
He claims that the two countries are still on that path but are 'facing difficulties due to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza'.
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Nahar Net
2 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Qassem: Ceasefire agreement for South Litani, arms a domestic matter
by Naharnet Newsdesk 12 hours Timeline Qassem: Let the aggression stop, Israel withdraw and the captives return, and after that take the best discussions and response from us. 11 hours Qassem: The arms we have are for resisting Israel, not for the interior, and we won't accept that these arms be handed over to Israel. 12 hours Qassem: We are not threatening; we are in a defensive position. 12 hours Qassem: We will not accept that Lebanon become an appendage of Israel and it will not be able to defeat us. 12 hours Qassem: We will not accept that the arms be handed over to Israel. 12 hours Qassem said Israel is seeking "expansion" in Lebanon and not "security." 12 hours Qassem: Israel has not withdrawn from the five points because it wants to set up settlements in Lebanon. 12 hours Qassem: The U.S. envoy sought to create a problem for Lebanon but Barrack was surprised by the unity of the official Lebanese stance. 12 hours Qassem: Disarmament is a domestic matter. 12 hours Qassem: They thought that Hezbollah had become weak, but they were surprised by Hezbollah's political presence in the state and its popular presence. 12 hours Qassem: The ceasefire agreement was exclusively for the South Litani area. 12 hours Qassem: Israel requested the ceasefire agreement after it considered Hezbollah's withdrawal from the South Litani area as a gain for it ... The agreement achieved gains for us and gains for the enemy and this was normal. 12 hours Qassem: The army is in charge and will remain in charge and we salute it. The people and the resistance are also responsible. 12 hours Qassem said Hezbollah played a role in the election of President Joseph Aoun. 12 hours Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has saluted Georges Ibrahim Abdallah after he returned to Lebanon after 41 years in French prisons. 12 hours Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Wednesday reiterated his stance that the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel in November 'was exclusively for the South Litani area' and not the rest of the country, while stressing that the issue of disarmament is a 'domestic matter.' In a televised address marking the first anniversary of Israel's assassination of Hezbollah's military chief Fouad Shukur, Qassem said "anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project." He also accused U.S. envoy Tom Barrack of using "intimidation and threats" with the aim of "aiding Israel." 'They thought that Hezbollah had become weak, but they were surprised by Hezbollah's political presence in the state and its popular presence,' Qassem added. 'The U.S. envoy sought to create a problem for Lebanon but Barrack was surprised by the unity of the official Lebanese stance,' Hezbollah's leader went on to say. Warning that Israel has not withdrawn from the five points because it wants to set up 'settlements' in Lebanon, Qassem said that Israel is seeking "expansion" in Lebanon and not Israeli "security." 'We will not accept that the arms be handed over to Israel,' he stressed. 'We will not accept that Lebanon become an appendage of Israel and it will not be able to defeat us,' he added. 'We are not threatening; we are in a defensive position,' Qassem clarified, adding: 'The arms we have are for resisting Israel, not for the interior, and we won't accept that these arms be handed over to Israel.' 'Let the aggression stop, Israel withdraw and the captives return, and after that take the best discussions and response from us,' Qassem went on to say.
L'Orient-Le Jour
7 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Qassem: Anyone who calls for Hezbollah's disarmament serves Israeli project
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem stated Wednesday night that the weapons of the pro-Iranian party "are intended to resist Israel, not for use inside the country," and that any demand for his party-militia to surrender its weapons amounts to "serving the Israeli project," while the issue of disarmament remains at the center of political debate, both in Beirut and internationally. "We will not allow Lebanon to become an appendage of Israel," Qassem declared. "You will neither defeat us nor take Lebanon hostage. The weapons we possess are intended to resist Israel, not for domestic use." According to him, any demand for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons "serves the Israeli project, and the American envoy Tom Barrack resorts to 'threats and intimidation' in order to 'help Israel.'" "Anyone who today calls for the handover of weapons, whether Lebanese or foreign ... serves the Israeli project," he insisted during a televised speech on the first anniversary of the death of Fuad Shukur, a party commander killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs. Claiming that "these weapons constitute a force for Lebanon," he added, "We will never hand over our weapons to Israel." "Now is not the time for discussions about armament, but for reconstruction and stopping the aggression," he continued. According to him, "before calling for the handover of weapons, the state must fulfill two fundamental duties: halt the aggression and initiate reconstruction." He also accused Israel of "waiting for the disarmament of the resistance in order to expand and build its settlements." "Let us raise together the slogan: Let us expel Israel through our unity, and build our homeland," Qassem urged. "We support the strengthening and construction of the state, and call on the state to silence the voices of discord. Lebanon is a country for all its children, and we salute all Arab nations and peoples, except those seeking to serve Israel's interests." He said, "The resistance has proven to be a pillar of the state, by facilitating the election of the president and the government." "We are moving along two parallel paths: resistance to liberate the land, with means that are directed exclusively against Israel and the political path to build the state, without favoring one to the detriment of the other," he explained. "We cannot be forced to choose between resistance and state-building: resistance is against Israel, and state-building is for the citizen." The Hezbollah leader also recalled that "the resistance was born in reaction to the Israeli occupation and does not deny anyone their responsibility," before stating, "the army and the people are responsible, and we salute them for their actions." 'An internal matter' Turning to the cease-fire agreement reached in November 2024 to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Qassem stressed that, "We helped the state implement this agreement, which concerns exclusively the south of the Litani. To those who link the cease-fire to disarmament, tell them it is an internal matter." "This resistance still exists in all its political and social dimensions, proof of its strength, which is why the enemy violated the agreement," he said. According to Qassem, "a guarantee was given when the cease-fire agreement was concluded to monitor its respect with the enemy entity, but the new envoy [Barrack] withdrew, saying there was no guarantee." "Barrack came with threats of annexing Lebanon to Syria and expanding the aggression, but was surprised by the united national stance of the three Lebanese presidents [the head of state, the prime minister and the parliament speaker], who demanded an end to the aggression before any other discussion," he also said. According to him, Joseph Aoun, Nawaf Salam, and Nabih Berri "want to rebuild the country and therefore cannot accept relinquishing Lebanon's strength." A cease-fire agreement entered into force on Nov. 27 to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which had intensified in September 2024. The agreement included a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas in southern Lebanon so that the Lebanese Army could deploy there. However, even after the end of the extended transitional period on Feb. 8, 2025, Israeli soldiers still occupy five so-called strategic points and continue their military operations almost daily. "The Israeli plan is to stay on these five points to use them as a beachhead for expansion, not as negotiation points," Qassem denounced, adding, "Lebanon today faces an existential threat that endangers not just the resistance, but the whole country and all its communities." "The agreement provided security in the northern settlements, but has security been assured in Lebanon?" he asked. "Today, we have Syria as a model, where the enemy kills, bombs, marks borders both geographical and political, and determines the country's future." "Today, in Lebanon, our entire people face an existential threat from Israel, Daesh (Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group), and the United States under the guise of the new Middle East," he warned. "All the attacks, aggressions, assassinations, and building strikes are part of the Israeli expansion project." George Abdallah and Gaza In his speech, the Hezbollah chief also paid tribute "in particular to the activist Georges Abdallah, recently freed, who stood tall and proud for 41 years." The pro-Palestinian activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah returned to Lebanon last Friday, after more than 40 years in prison in France for complicity in the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats. "He is an essential component of this plural resistance," Qassem added. Qassem also touched upon the Gaza Strip, devastated by nearly 22 months of war and threatened with widespread famine, according to the U.N. "What is happening in Gaza is a savage, organized crime of unprecedented brutality, broadcast live before the eyes of the whole world," Qassem denounced. "No other crime anywhere in the world equals the extent of the atrocities committed by the Israeli enemy in the Gaza Strip, with the open support of the United States." "Where are the Arabs? Where is the world? Where are human rights?" he asked. "It is time to take concrete measures: enough statements and condemnations. The world must oppose Israel by all means, including militarily."
L'Orient-Le Jour
7 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Smotrich unveils plan to sell land near Lebanon border to ‘reinforce' northern Israel
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right member of the government, on Wednesday announced a new plan to sell building plots in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border. The initiative, developed in coordination with Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strock — a prominent figure in the settler movement and a member of Smotrich's Religious Zionism party — was unveiled during a conference titled 'Strengthening the North,' Israeli Channel 12 reported. Smotrich also praised the terms of the cease-fire agreement with Lebanon that came into effect on Nov. 27, 2024, and insisted that Israel 'will not withdraw from the [five] positions it occupies on Lebanese territory.' He said the government would offer 'serviced land, ready to build on, in the north of the country' for just 100,000 shekels (around $27,000), adding that military reservists would be eligible to buy the plots for only 50,000 shekels (around $14,800). He described the deal as 'an offer you can't refuse.' 'The state (of Israel) needs you,' he said, as northern Israel continues to recover from the nearly 13-month war with Hezbollah that began on Oct. 8, 2023, and ended with a fragile truce on Nov. 27, 2024. The terms of that cease-fire remain under negotiation and have been consistently violated by Israel. Despite Hezbollah's military losses and the ongoing cease-fire, many residents of northern Israel have yet to return to their homes. 'They talk to us about returning, but there's nowhere to return to,' said David Azoulay, head of the Metula municipal council — Israel's northernmost town — in early March. Some 2,900 buildings were damaged in Israel during the fighting, according to a February estimate by former Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin. 'Even Khamenei has lost hope in Hezbollah' Smotrich said there is now 'a real possibility that Hezbollah could be totally disarmed,' and claimed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had 'lost hope' in the party and is now 'completely indifferent as to whether it is rebuilt or not.' While U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has raised the prospect of a new agreement between Lebanon and Israel during recent visits to Beirut, Smotrich defended the current deal, calling it 'a good agreement.' He argued that it gives Israel 'full legitimacy to effectively prevent Hezbollah from reorganizing at the border.' Despite the cease-fire, Israel has continued near-daily strikes on southern Lebanon, increased incursions along the border, and killed at least 285 people — both militants and civilians — since the truce began, according to a tally by the United Nations and L'Orient-Le Jour. Israel also continues to occupy five positions on Lebanese territory, located on elevated ground near the border. Smotrich reaffirmed that the country 'will not withdraw' from those areas, despite cease-fire terms calling for a full Israeli pullout from Lebanese land.
