Tel Aviv insists it will not fully withdraw from newly occupied Syrian territory as part of a security deal with Damascus
News Desk - The Cradle
Speaking with i24 News, the unnamed source credited US President Donald Trump for the progress toward an agreement, which will reportedly include a diplomatic annex.
The agreement is expected to be signed by the two sides at a high-level Syrian-Israeli summit in an undisclosed European country.
The Syrian source “did not rule out” the possibility that Sharaa, the founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria and former ISIS leader, could sign the agreement directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel covertly supported Sharaa and his armed group, the Nusra Front, in an effort to topple former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad starting in 2011.
Netanyahu immediately took credit after Sharaa toppled Assad and took power in Damascus in December 2024.
The Israeli army quickly took control of more Syrian territory, including the strategic Mount Hermon, and conducted hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria, destroying the country's military bases and advanced weapons.
Israeli troops frequently conduct incursions into the Quneitra and Daraa regions in southern Syria.
Syria’s new security forces have not confronted occupying Israeli troops and have instead focused their efforts on targeting Syria’s minority religious and ethnic groups.
Sharaa’s forces carried out major massacres of Alawite civilians in March and Druze civilians in July.
In recent days, Syrian forces have carried out attacks against the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in Aleppo, Sheikh Maqsoud, and Ashrafiyah.
Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The two sides signed an armistice agreement in 1974, creating a demilitarized zone along the frozen front line.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, another former Al-Qaeda commander, has said that Damascus expects to sign a security agreement with Israel by the end of the year, based on the 1974 armistice agreement.
Israel has refused to withdraw its forces from the territory it occupied after Assad’s fall.
According to Israeli sources speaking with i24, Israel will “withdraw from some of the nine points it currently holds in Syrian territory only in exchange for a full peace agreement with Syria, not a security agreement.”
A full peace agreement with Israel would require Syria to relinquish its legitimate claim to the occupied Golan Heights formally.
Israeli leaders are openly seeking to establish “Greater Israel” by conquering Arab territory in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq for Jewish settlement.
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