The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied media reports that Syria will sign a security agreement with Israel under the auspices of Washington towards the end of next month. The Saudi-owned newspaper Independent Arabia quoted “senior Syrian sources” saying the agreement to be made in the presence of US President Donald Trump, will be signed on 25 September — a day after Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa delivers his first speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
Al-Sharaa (previously known as Abu Mohamed Al-Golani) led forces that toppled the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad at the end of last year. Since then, the interim leader, a Jihadist-turned-politician, has on many occasions stated that his regime is not an enemy to Israel and that he wants to settle the long-standing conflict with the Jewish State.
Meetings between Syrian and Israeli officials have certainly taken place, with one involving Turkish officials as well. Meanwhile Israel has continued bombing Syria from north to south, putting Damascus’ interim government in an awkward position. One such incident occurred last month when sectarian clashes broke out in the southern Suweida province and Israeli troops advanced into Syrian territories occupying more land. Israel justified this by claiming they were protecting the Druze minority against the forces of Al-Sharaa’s regime.
Last month, Syria’s interim Foreign Minister Assad Al-Shaibani met Israeli strategic affairs minister and Netanyahu confidant Ron Dermer in an effort to soften Israeli interference in Suweida. The two ministers met again this week in Paris. Yet no concrete results have been announced. After the last meeting, the Saudi channel Al-Arabiya reported that Israel and Syria have agreed on 80 per cent of the questions in dispute between them.
Though the report did not elaborate on these “points”, it implied that the main issues on the agenda of the Paris meeting were: the de-escalation of tensions resulting from interference in Syrian domestic affairs; and reactivating a 1974 disengagement agreement that would prevent Israel from providing humanitarian assistance to Syria’s Druze minority. The last point was not resolved as Israel insists on opening a “humanitarian corridor” so it can channel aid to the Druze in Suweida, and Damascus has difficulty agreeing to this level of foreign involvement.
One of the main parties concerned about Israeli involvement in Syria is Jordan, which neighbours both parties. Despite Jordan wanting stability in Syria in order to secure its own borders, it is wary of Israeli expansion and aggression, which threatens the integrity of the country that hosts millions of Palestinian natives. A Jordanian source told Al-Ahram Weekly that the stability of the new Syrian regime depends on good and normal relations with neighbouring countries and regional powers — Israel included. He hinted that the regime is still in a fragile state and needs to clear regional suspicions of its inability to lead a unified and stable Syria.
Some commentators noted that well-off Gulf countries will not provide financial assistance to the new regime in Damascus until they are sure of its stability. One of the conditions for this would be a peace agreement with Israel. Abraham Accords countries, especially the UAE, have been trying to bring Damascus and Tel Aviv together to negotiate a deal. Saudi Arabia, though not yet on the normalisation track, managed to get US President Trump to welcome the Syrian interim president in Riyadh earlier this year.
Saudi Arabia might not be pushing the Syrian regime to sign a deal with Israel, but it would not object to one. Syria’s position is different from Saudi on the issue of normalisation, as Riyadh repeatedly confirmed it won’t normalise unless the Palestinian issue is resolved. The main Gulf backer of the new Syrian leadership, Qatar, might not be enthusiastic about Damascus joining the Abraham Accords. Nevertheless, Doha is not against securing the new Syrian regime’s stability even through an agreement with Israel.
Turkey, a main player in Syria now, is not against a Syrian-Israeli deal as far as it does not include any provision that would provide Israel with any leverage on the issue of the Syrian Kurds in the north. With such internal conflicts and external pressures working against each other, the new regime in Damascus is between a rock and a hard place. As many analysts conclude, it needs an agreement with Israel but it is not sure the calculations are right especially with other parties from Turkey to the Gulf.
But the Saudi media reported as a possible security agreement to be signed next month should not be ruled out. What is certain so far is that the Syria-Israel path of negotiations is active and the US is involved. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, attended the Paris meeting between Al-Shaibani and Dermer. Noting American President Donald Trump’s eagerness to be called the “global peacemaker”, Washington might be pressing for any sort of deal to be signed soon.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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