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Israeli public broadcaster sources reported on Monday evening that security negotiations between Israel and Syria have hit a dead end, with widening differences between Damascus’s demands and Tel Aviv’s conditions.
According to the sources, Israel rejected Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s request to withdraw its forces from all areas it occupied following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s government on 8 December 2024.
They added that Tel Aviv will only withdraw as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, not through a limited security deal, which does not appear feasible at present.
Both sides had been expected to sign a US-brokered security agreement during last September’s UN General Assembly meetings, but media reports indicated the talks broke down at the last moment.
Israeli security sources said disagreements arose during meetings between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The disputes focused on Syria’s demands for Israel to return to the lines set by the 1974 disengagement agreement, stop violating Syrian airspace, and withdraw from the areas occupied by Israel in late 2024.
READ: Israeli forces raid Quneitra countryside in latest violation of Syria’s sovereignty
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.