Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was engaged in talks aimed at the demilitarisation of southern Syria, implicitly acknowledging for the first time contacts with the new Syrian government.
Following deadly sectarian violence in Syria last month, Netanyahu met with a Druze leader in Israel, reassuring him that his government was negotiating to safeguard the religious community in Syria. Critics say Tel Aviv is seeking to fuel division between the Syrian government and Druze leaders for its own territorial purposes.
“We are focusing on three things: Protecting the Druze community in the Suweida governorate, but not only there; creating a demilitarised zone stretching from the Golan Heights (passing) south of Damascus down to and including Sweida; and establishing a humanitarian corridor to allow the delivery of aid,” the premier said.
“These discussions are taking place right now, at this very moment,” he added, according to a video shared by his office.
Last week, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani had met an Israeli delegation led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in Paris on 19 August.
Talks focused on de-escalation between the two countries and the situation in Druze-majority Suweida province after deadly sectarian clashes there last month, the news channel said
The French Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting to AFP, saying it had been conducted “under US mediation” and that delegations from the two Middle Eastern neighbours had previously met on July 24 in the French capital.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December, and occupied much of a UN-patrolled demilitarised zone on the Syrian-held side of the armistice line between the two countries. These attacks and raids have killed hundreds of Syrian soldiers and civilians.
Damascus has confirmed holding indirect contacts with Israel with the intention of returning to the 1974 disengagement agreement that created the buffer zone.
In July, Israel bombed Syrian government forces in the capital and in Sweida province to force their withdrawal from the southern region amid a wave of sectarian violence.
On Wednesday night, Israeli forces conducted an airborne raid on a site near the Syrian capital after bombing it several times, SANA reported Thursday.
Israel did not confirm the raid, but Defence Minister Israel Katz said its forces operate “in all combat zones” to ensure the country’s security.
