In Damascus, US envoy inks $7 billion energy deal, calls for Israel-Syria peace pact
The agreement was sealed at the presidential palace in Damascus in the presence of interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and US ambassador Thomas Barrack. It aims to generate 5,000 megawatts.
Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir called it a "historic moment" and a "turning point" for the country's shattered infrastructure.
The consortium is led by Qatar 's UCC Concession Investments and includes Turkey 's Kalyon GES Enerji Yatirimlari and Cengiz Enerji, along with Power International USA.
Syria's 14-year civil war wrecked its power grid, leaving people with up to 20 hours of daily blackouts.
The project includes four gas-powered plants in central and eastern Syria and a 1,000-megawatt solar farm in the south. Bashir said the plants would use US and European technology.
Barrack said US President Donald Trump had lifted sanctions on Syria unconditionally and pledged ongoing support.
Trump, he said, offered Syria his "unceasing commitment" to turn borders "into a tapestry of commerce and cooperation".
UCC chief executive Ramez al-Khayyat said the deal would create more than 50,000 direct and 250,000 indirect jobs.
Last week, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said his country would begin supplying Syria with two billion cubic metres of gas a year – enough to generate 1,300 megawatts.
Syria has ramped up efforts to lure investment after the United States and European Union said they would lift sanctions.
In March, Qatar began funding gas supplies to Syria via Jordan to help ease power shortages.
US suggests Syria-Israel non-aggression deal
While in Damascus, Barrack, called for a non-aggression agreement between Syria and Israel in remarks to Saudi channel Al Arabiya on Thursday.
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948, with Israel taking the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967.
Since the ouster in December of former president Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes and multiple incursions into Syria.
Barrack said the conflict between the two countries was a "solvable problem".
To him, Syria and Israel could "start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders" to build a new relationship with its neighbour.
On May 8, Sharaa said in France that Syria was holding "indirect talks through mediators" with Israel to "try to contain the situation so it does not reach the point where it escapes the control of both sides".
US ambassador's residence inaugurated
Barrack, who is also ambassador to Turkey, inaugurated the US ambassador's residence in the Syrian capital with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani, state media outlet SANA reported.
AFP photographers saw the US flag raised at the ambassador's residence, just a few hundred metres (yards) from the US embassy in the Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood, under tight security.
"Tom understands there is great potential in working with Syria to stop Radicalism, improve Relations, and secure Peace in the Middle East," Trump said, according to a post on the State Department's X.
The US embassy in Syria was closed after Assad's repression of a peaceful uprising that began in 2011, which degenerated into civil war.
Washington has not formally reopened its embassy in Damascus, but Barrack's visit and the raising of the flag were a significant signal of warming relations between the two countries.
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From the Ottoman Empire to the British Mandate 1916 – Concluded in May between France and Great Britain, the Sykes-Picot Agreement marks out the two imperial powers' future spheres of influence across the Middle Eastern territories of the foundering Ottoman Empire – Palestine and Syria among them. 1917 – The Balfour Declaration, named for British foreign minister Arthur Balfour, promises 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people'. The declaration, responding to the campaigning of the growing Zionist movement, follows an earlier pledge from London to Mecca's Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi promising the creation of an independent Arab kingdom following the eventual break-up of the Ottoman Empire. 1922 – The League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations, grants the United Kingdom a mandate to administer the lands of historic Palestine. The mandate document explicitly references the wording of the Balfour Declaration promoting 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people', adding that the British would be responsible for enacting a nationality law that would allow 'the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who take up their permanent residence in Palestine'. 1937 – Following the outbreak of Arab riots the previous year against the British Mandate and rising Jewish immigration, a report by the British Peel Commission recommends the division of historic Palestine into a Jewish state comprised of 33 percent of the territory and an Arab state connected to what was then the British protectorate of Transjordan. A 'Jewish state' and an 'Arab state' 1947 – In February, a United Kingdom – increasingly eager to renounce its role as Mandatory – submits the Palestinian question to the newly formed United Nations. In November, the UN General Assembly adopts Resolution 181, which calls for the division of Palestine into a 'Jewish state' and an 'Arab state'. The resolution, which passes despite the unanimous opposition of the Arab delegations, suggests that Jerusalem and its holy sites be placed under international administration. 1948 – As the British Mandate for Palestine expires, then-National Jewish Council president David Ben Gurion proclaims the independence of the State of Israel on May 14. The creation of the Israeli state, which soon seizes control of 77 percent of Mandatory Palestine, is synonymous for Palestinians and across the Arab world with the Nakba, or 'catastrophe', which saw hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes and lands by armed force. Today, more than 4 million Palestinians are registered as refugees under the UN. 1949 – A ceasefire brings the first Israeli-Arab war to an end, giving Jordan control over the West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem and Egypt the Gaza Strip. Israel would henceforth take these lines of demarcation as the country's official borders – a territory far greater than that envisaged in the original UN resolution. The same year, the UN General Assembly adopts Resolution 273, admitting Israel into the United Nations. The following year, Israel transfers its capital from Tel Aviv to the western part of Jerusalem. 1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is founded in Cairo. The group is empowered to negotiate and conclude international treaties in the name of the Palestinian people. The Six-Day War redraws the map 1967 – The third Israeli-Arab war, or the Six-Day War, is launched by Israel, putting the armed forces of neighbouring Arab states to flight and redrawing the map of the Middle East. Israel now occupies the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the vast Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights. The Israeli government begins a policy of Jewish settlement across these newly conquered territories. 1974 – The UN General Assembly formally recognises the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and independent and grants the PLO observer status to the international body. 1987 – The First Intifada, or uprising, breaks out in the occupied Gaza Strip and soon spreads to the West Bank. Dubbed the 'war of stones', this revolt against the Israeli occupation will last until 1993 and place the Palestinian cause front and centre of the international agenda. The uprising also gives birth to the Islamist militant group Hamas, which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. 1988 – Gathered in Algiers, the PLO's legislative assembly proclaims an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The group also implicitly recognises the existence of the State of Israel. The Oslo Accords 1993 – PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin sign the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements in Washington, D.C., following secret negotiations in Norway – the first of a series of agreements known as the Oslo Accords. These declarations are intended to lay the groundwork for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and build the basis for Palestinian autonomy within the borders preceding the Six-Day War. The first part of the agreements create the Palestinian Authority, an interim body intended to give way to an independent Palestinian state in 1999. 1995 – The Oslo II Accord divides the Israeli-occupied West Bank into three parts: Zone A, administered by the Palestinians, Zone B under dual administration and Zone C – representing more than 60 percent of the territory – which, although intended to pass progressively into Palestinian control, remains for the moment entirely under the administration of the Israeli army. More sensitive questions, including the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlers in the occupied territories and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, remain unresolved. 1996 – Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority in the first Palestinian elections. 1998 – US President Bill Clinton becomes the first US president to be officially received by a virtual Palestinian state. Palestinian power struggles 2000 – The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, erupts following right-wing Likud party leader Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Temple Mount – a holy site for Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. 2002 – The Arab Initiative, adopted in 2002 and relaunched in 2007, foresees the normalisation of ties between Arab states and Israel in return for Israel pulling out of Arab territories occupied since June 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The same year, the UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1397, confirming its support for a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict. 2005 – Mahmoud Abbas is elected president of the Palestinian Authority. After 38 years of armed occupation, Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip. 2007 – The Islamist group Hamas, which won the 2006 legislative elections, takes control of the Gaza Strip by force, fracturing the Palestinian leadership. On the world stage 2011 – Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas formally requests Palestine's admission into the United Nations. The same year, Palestine becomes a member of UNESCO. Furious, the US – staunch allies of Israel – suspend their donations to the UN agency, which make up almost a quarter of its total budget. 2012 – The UN votes to recognise Palestine as a 'Non-Member Observer State' with 138 countries for, nine against and 41 abstaining. 2015 – Faced with an Israeli prime minister – Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu – who has repeatedly sworn that a Palestinian state will never see the light of day as long as he remains in power, the Palestinian Authority doubles downs on its efforts to integrate itself with UN organisations, as well as the International Criminal Court. How to break the cycle: From war in Gaza to a two-state solution? 44:18 2016 – The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to 'immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem'. The resolution underlines that the UN will 'not recognise any changes to the June 4 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations'. 2017 – The administration of US President Donald Trump announces that the US recognises Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and tells the state department to move the US embassy to the contested city. 2019 – The White House unveils Trump's economic plan for the Palestinians, which despite promising to 'fundamentally transform the West Bank and Gaza', contains no mention of the creation of a Palestinian state. 2020 – Trump suggests that the creation of a Palestinian state could be possible if the Palestinians are prepared to give way to the conditions outlined in his own peace plan. His proposal outlines a 'contiguous' Palestinian state, connected across stretches of Israeli territory by 'an efficient, modern transportation network' of rails and tunnels. The plan also suggests the creation of a Palestinian capital in 'Eastern Jerusalem' without providing further details. The aftermath of October 7 2023 – The deadly October 7 attacks launched by Hamas and allied militant groups on Israeli soil and the resulting Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip draws the world's gaze once more to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question of a two-state solution once again enters the discussion, albeit increasingly out-of-reach due to Netanyahu's hardline policies, Abbas's growing irrelevance, Hamas's grip on Gaza and Israel's renewed settlement of the occupied West Bank. 2024 – The UN General Assembly votes for the admission of the state of Palestine into the United Nations with a crushing majority and raises its status to 'Permanent Observer'. Spain, Ireland and Norway all formally recognise the state of Palestine, and France's Emmanuel Macron declares himself ready to follow their example. For its part, the Israeli government – the most right-wing in the nation's history – announces the seizure and future settlement of the largest parcel of land in the occupied West Bank since the signing of the Oslo Accords. Israel expands West Bank settlements as Gaza crisis worsens 03:50 2025 – France's Macron affirms that recognising the state of Palestine is 'not just a moral duty, but a political necessity'. He prepares to officially recognise the Palestinian state at a conference in Saudi Arabia in June – a conference postponed following Israel's unprecedented bombing campaign of Iran. On July 10, Macron calls for a joint recognition of Palestine between Paris and London during a visit to the United Kingdom. On July 24, he announces that France will recognise the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
