Syrian foreign minister says talks with Israel exclude wider Golan Heights issue

Since the overthrow of long-time Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024, Israel has sent troops into the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that separates Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.

Israel seized much of the plateau from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed areas under its control, a move that was not recognized by most of the international community.

Israel and the new Syrian authorities have held multiple rounds of direct talks in recent months, and after negotiations in January, under pressure from the United States, they agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism and gradually reach a security agreement.

When asked at the Munich Security Conference about the scope of talks with Israel, Shabani said they were discussing “the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Syrian territories it occupied after Assad was ousted” and “not the withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which is another issue.”

He added that in order to reach a security agreement, Israel should “respect Syria’s security and withdraw its troops from these recently occupied territories”.

“These negotiations will certainly not lead to a forced acceptance of a fait accompli imposed by Israel in southern Syria,” he said.

Shabani added that “the end of these negotiations will be the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the areas that have been advanced since December 2024” and that Israel will no longer “interfere in Syria’s internal affairs” and sovereignty.

Israel, which demands a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, has also launched hundreds of attacks on its neighbors and carried out regular incursions.

Shabani met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Munich on Friday to discuss the recent deal between Damascus and the Kurds.

Mazloum Abdi, leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, also attended.

The Syrian government and the Kurds signed an agreement last month to gradually integrate Kurdish forces and institutions into the country after the SDF ceded territory to advancing government forces.

Shabani told the Munich conference that Rubio’s meeting with Abdi “confirms the new thinking that Syria is adopting today.”

“We do not view our national partners as enemies,” he said, adding that the country’s national identity was “completed by Syria’s diversity.”

The U.S. military said on Friday it had transferred thousands of Islamic State group suspects, including many Syrians, to Iraq who had been held for years in Kurdish-run prisons in northeastern Syria.

Shabani said Damascus was “ready to take back” Syrian detainees in the future “to reduce the burden on Iraq.”

mom-lg/dcp

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.