Less than a year after Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, Syria hopes to finalize military and security agreements with Israel by the end of 2025, an official said Thursday.
According to the foreign ministry official, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani arrived in Washington to hold negotiations with Israel and the potential easing of remaining sanctions on Syria, as the United States is pushing for a settlement between the two neighbors.
Syria and Israel remain technically at war, but opened direct negotiations after Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led coalition in December last year.
“There is progress in the talks with Israel,” said the official, speaking on condition anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the media, adding that several agreements were expected to be signed “by the end of the year”.
“Primarily, these would be security and military agreements,” he told AFP, adding there would be a focus on “an agreement to halt (Israeli) military operations inside Syria”.
Since December, Israel has deployed troops in a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separates the countries’ forces and launched hundreds of strikes in Syria. Damascus has not retaliated.
Last week, President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria was negotiating with Israel to reach a security agreement that would see Israel leave the areas it occupied in recent months.
Syrian and Israeli officials have met on several occasions, and a diplomatic source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said a new meeting would be held in Baku on Friday.
According to US news outlet Axios, Shaibani met with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in London on Wednesday.
The two men had previously met in August in Paris, under the auspices of the US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrak.
