#Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed in an interview with the *Washington Post* that his country is in direct talks with Israel
He accused the Israelis of wanting to expand territory, demanded the return of troops to the pre-December 8th borders, and said that US President Donald Trump supports the Syrian position in the ongoing negotiations.
Following a historic visit to the White House, where he met with Trump, al-Sharaa recalled that Syria and Israel fought 50 years ago and, in 1974, signed a disengagement agreement that maintained peace on the borders for half a century.
“When the Assad regime fell, Israel broke that agreement,” he stated.
“They increased their military presence here, expelled the UN peacekeeping mission, and occupied new lands.”
Since December 8th-the day al-Sharaa’s group, the Nusra Front, overthrew Bashar al-Assad-Israel has carried out more than a thousand airstrikes in Syria, including the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense.
“But, since our focus is on rebuilding the country, we haven’t retaliated,” he explained.
Al-Sharaa dismissed the security justifications given by Israel.
For him, what motivates the attacks is the ambition to seize more land.
“They always talked about fear of Iran and Hezbollah, but it was we who removed those forces from Syria,” he emphasized.
Even with the tensions, the two nations are negotiating directly, with the support of the United States and other countries.
“We have already made significant progress towards an agreement,” said al-Sharaa.
“To finalize it completely, Israel needs to return to the lines it was in before December 8th.” He also revealed that Trump agrees with this view and will accelerate the process.
Asked if he would accept demilitarizing the region south of Damascus, the president rejected the idea.
“Demilitarizing an entire area is complicated.
If there’s chaos, who protects it? And if someone uses this zone to attack Israel, whose fault will it be”” he questioned.
“It’s Syrian territory, and Syria needs the freedom to take care of what is its own.”
In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Monday, al-Sharaa was cautious about the possibility of Syria joining the Abraham Accords.
He did not confirm whether he would recognize Israel’s right to exist and only said: “We have a border with Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967.
We are not going to negotiate that now.
Perhaps, with the help of the Trump administration, we will reach that point.”
In September, while still in Damascus, al-Sharaa had told journalists that talks on a security pact with Israel could yield results “in a few days.” If the pact succeeds, it could open doors for other agreements, but normalization or a peace treaty with Israel are not on the table at the moment.
Published in 11/12/2025 04h09
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
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