Latest news with #normalisation
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Will Syria normalise relations with Israel?
After nearly 14 years of war in Syria, the new government is resetting its regional relations, and a lot of focus is on what will happen with Israel. There are reports of talks between Syria and Israel, with timelines even being floated for potential normalisation between the two countries, which have technically been at war since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Here's what you need to know about possible normalisation between Syria and Israel: What has happened so far? Syria and Israel have held direct talks, according to Israeli media, about potentially entering into a normalisation agreement. Communication between the two states has reportedly been facilitated by the United Arab Emirates, which established a backchannel for contact. Any agreement would likely be an extension of the Abraham Accords, an agreement brokered by the United States between some Arab states and Israel. The Abraham Accords were a top-down approach by Donald Trump during his first term as US president to get Arab states to formalise relations with Israel. They were signed in August and September 2020 by the UAE and Bahrain, and soon followed by Sudan and Morocco. Since then, Trump has worked to expand the accords by pushing more countries to sign agreements with Israel. Trump visited three countries in the Middle East in May, and, while in Saudi Arabia, he met Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and reportedly encouraged him to normalise relations with Israel. Is normalisation possible? Possibly down the road, analysts say, but right now it would be nearly impossible, according to Syrian writer and author Robin Yassin-Kassab. There is a deep enmity between Syria and Israel, which heightened during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights. Israeli Defence Minister Gideon Saar said his country would insist on its occupation of the Golan Heights in any deal with Syria, and the Israeli army has gone deeper into the Golan, occupying homes and expelling people from the area. Many Syrians would oppose giving up the Golan to Israel, according to analysts. Still, many might welcome common-sense negotiations. 'Syrians are split … because on the one hand people are exhausted, everyone recognises Syria cannot defend itself or fight Israel … so it's good [al-Sharaa's] negotiating,' Yassin-Kassab said, adding that a return to an agreement like the 1974 ceasefire is the most realistic option. About a week after then-President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria in December 2024, Israel's parliament voted on a plan to expand settlements in Syria – illegal under international law. There are currently more than 31,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied Golan Heights. Syria, under al-Sharaa, has said it is open to peace with Israel and that it would uphold a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two states, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on December 8 – the day al-Assad fled to Moscow – that he viewed the agreement as void. Israel attacked Syria repeatedly, destroying much of its military infrastructure and seizing Syrian territory near the border with Syria's Golan Heights. Syria would likely ask for Israel to withdraw from the newly occupied area under a new non-aggression deal, though reports say the Golan Heights have not yet been discussed. What moves have been made lately? In recent days, Israeli officials have said they are open to a deal with Syria, and Netanyahu reportedly asked US Special Envoy Tom Barrack to help negotiate one. Israel's National Security Council head, Tzachi Hanegbi, has reportedly been overseeing discussions with Syrian officials. The talks include a US presence and are in 'advanced stages', according to senior Israeli officials who spoke to The Times of Israel. Figures close to al-Sharaa are reportedly asking for an end to Israeli aggression without Syria having to accept full normalisation, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported. What would Syria want from talks with Israel? Syria wants the Israeli attacks on Syrian territory to cease. There are concerns over Israel's expanded occupation of the Golan Heights among many Syrians; however, it's unclear if al-Sharaa's government will demand the return of the occupied parts. Syria would, however, want Israel to pull out of the Golan proper and the parts it occupied over the last year. Israel also threatened the new Syrian government not to deploy soldiers south of Damascus, a region near its border with Israel. Israel has also tried to stoke sectarianism in this area, threatening to intervene to 'protect the Syrian Druze' during sectarian-driven tensions between groups affiliated with the new Syrian government and Syria's minority Druze community. While many in the Druze community have shown a distrust of Syria's new government, many have also denounced Israel's threats of intervention as a calculated stunt to cause further discord among Syrians. What would Israel want? Netanyahu reportedly wants a security agreement – an update on the 1974 text – with a framework towards a total peace plan with Syria. US envoy Barrack claims the issue between Syria and Israel is 'solvable' and has suggested they begin with a 'non-aggression agreement', according to Axios. Such a continued occupation of the Golan would likely upset many Syrians. 'It's too politically difficult [for al-Sharaa], even under American pressure and the continued threat of violence from Israel,' Yassin-Kassab said. Israel also reportedly has additional conditions: no Turkish military bases in Syria, no presence of Iran or Iranian-backed groups like Hezbollah, and the demilitarisation of southern Syria.
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Israel says it wants peace with Syria, Lebanon after fall of Assad and Hezbollah's decline
JERUSALEM, June 30 — Israel said today it is 'interested' in striking peace agreements with neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, a potentially historic shift in the region after decades of war and animosity. With Syria under a new leadership after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement weakened, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told journalists his government wanted more normalisation agreements with Arab countries. 'Israel is interested in expanding the Abraham Accords circle of peace and normalisation,' Saar said of the US-brokered deals that Israel signed in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. 'We have an interest in adding countries — Syria and Lebanon, our neighbours — to the circle of peace and normalisation while safeguarding Israel's essential and security interests,' Saar told a news conference in Jerusalem alongside his Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger. Control of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has long been a source of tension between Israel and Syria, which are technically still at war. Saar insisted that the strategic plateau, which Israel seized in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the United Nations, 'will remain part of the State of Israel' under any future peace agreement. Following Assad's overthrow in December, Israel moved forces into the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone in the Golan, and has carried out hundreds of strikes against military targets in Syria. In Lebanon, the clout of militant group Hezbollah has diminished after it had emerged bruised from a conflict with Israel last year, fuelled by Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel, however, has kept up strikes against Hezbollah despite a November ceasefire. There was no immediate response from Lebanese or Syrian officials to Saar's remarks. The latest push for peace comes after as 12-day war between Israel and Iran which ended last week, and as pressure rose on the Israeli government to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip, prompted by Hamas's deadly attack in October 2023. On Sunday, a senior US diplomat in the region said the Iran-Israel ceasefire could pave the way for a new Middle East. 'What just happened between Israel and Iran is an opportunity for all of us to say: 'Time out. Let's create a new road',' said Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey who is also a special envoy to Syria. 'The Middle East is ready to have a new dialogue, people are tired of the same old story,' he told Turkey's Anadolu state news agency. — AFP
CNA
19-05-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Putin, Trump discuss potential new US-Russia prisoner swap: Kremlin
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump discussed a new potential new prisoner swap between the two countries and were both in favour of normalising ties - massively soured by Moscow's Ukraine offensive - during a two-hour call Monday (May 19). The leaders spoke for the third time since Trump took office this year in a call mostly focused on resolving the three-year Ukraine conflict. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the pair had discussed "swapping nine people for nine people" - without giving any details on which prisoners. Russia and the United States have held several prisoner exchanges in recent years, with the biggest East-West swap taking place last year. Ushakov said Putin and Trump were in favour of improving Moscow-Washington ties. "Both expressed they were in favour for the further normalisation of ties," he said. The United States imposed huge sanctions on Russia for its 2022 Ukraine offensive. The Kremlin also said that Putin had discussed issues around Iran, one of Moscow's allies, with Trump, as tensions soar between Tehran and Washington.
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
US pushes former foes to lead Syria towards ‘normalisation' after decades of enmity
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani are set to meet on Thursday in Turkey to discuss Washington's conditions for normalisation with Damascus. This development follows Wednesday's meeting in Riyadh between Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa and Donald Trump , who on Tuesday announced he would lifting US sanctions on Syria. These developments amount to a dramatic breakthrough for Sharaa, who in 2017 founded Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It was branded a terrorist organisation by the US and a $10 million bounty was put on Sharaa's head. After HTS's ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, senior US diplomats visited Damascus to discuss Syria's future and remove the bounty. READ MORE Lifting sanctions was the first step in the process of resuming ties. In 1979, the US listed Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposed on it an arms embargo and financial restrictions. Sanctions were tightened in 2004. After the Syrian government cracked down on protesters in 2011, sanctions were imposed on individuals associated with the Assad government, foreign assets were frozen, US investments in Syria were banned and restrictions were levelled on oil imports to the US. Sanctions were expanded under the 2019 Congressional Caesar Act, which penalised individuals and firms engaging in business with the Syrian government or its affiliates. The US president will have to secure congressional revocation of this act before Syria can attract funds for reconstruction. This has long been a demand of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia , which seek to invest in Syria. Meeting US conditions for normalisation is the second step. Since the removal of the 54-year-old Assad dynasty, the US has demanded that HTS, a Sunni Muslim group, ensures the rights and security of Syria's Christian, Druze, Alawite, Shia and Kurdish minorities, and grants them representation in governance. The US has also called for the destruction of weapons of mass destruction and disarmament, as well as the demobilisation and exit from Syria of foreign fighters who partnered HTS in its campaign to seize power. Washington has also sought Syria's support for its 2,000 troops based in northeastern Syria to battle remnants of the Islamic State terror group, and for the Syrian government to assume responsibility for 15,000 Islamic State prisoners held by US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, which have declared autonomy in this region. Once Syria assumes these tasks, Trump could pull out US troops. Washington has urged Damascus to break with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, designate Iran 's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation, and normalise ties with Israel. While the latter is unlikely at present, Sharaa has conducted indirect talks with Israel over its occupation of the United Nations buffer zone between Syria and Israel and over scores of Israeli strikes on Syrian military facilities.
Sky News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Trump's deal with Syria - what does it mean?
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 Donald Trump has met Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa - a former al Qaeda member - during a tour of the Middle East. The US president said he is looking at "normalising" relations with Syria after lifting sanctions that have crippled the country for 25 years. On this episode of the Sky News Daily, host Niall Paterson is joined by our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn to discuss how the meeting came about, its significance for Syria and what it means for the wider region.
