DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria said Friday that it was willing to cooperate with Washington to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces.
In a statement following a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expressed Syria’s “aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement.”
Washington has been pushing diplomatic efforts towards a normalization deal between Syria and Israel, with US envoy Thomas Barrack saying last week that peace between the two was now needed.
Speaking to The New York Times, Barrack confirmed this week that Syria and Israel were engaging in “meaningful” US-brokered talks to end their border conflict.
Following the toppling of longtime Syria’s Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets in Syria and carried out incursions deeper into the country’s south.
Israel has also deployed its troops into the UN-patrolled zone separating Syrian and Israeli forces under the 1974 agreement.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receives US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack in Damascus, Syria, May 29, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
Israel says the accord fell apart since one of the sides was no longer in a position to implement it, and that the military action in Syria was a defensive move to protect the country from potential hostile forces that could have exploited the power vacuum. Israeli officials have referred to Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa as a “terrorist” due to his past affiliation with al-Qaeda.
Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948, the year Israel was established.
Israel conquered around two-thirds of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six Day War of June 1967, and annexed the territory in 1981, in a move not recognized by much of the international community, with the exception of the United States.
A year after the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, Israel and Syria reached an agreement on a disengagement line.
IDF troops operate in southern Syria, in a handout photo issued on March 8, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
As part of the deal, an 80 kilometer-long (50-mile-long) United Nations-patrolled buffer zone was created to the east of the Israeli-controlled territory, separating it from the Syrian-controlled side.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday that Israel had an “interest” in normalizing ties with Syria and neighboring Lebanon. He added that the Golan Heights “will remain part of the State of Israel” under any future peace agreement.
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that “statements concerning signing a peace agreement with the Israeli occupation at this time are considered premature.”
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