Syria's FM says Israel security talks frozen since Iran war, expects them to resume soon

Negotiations between Syria and Israel over a security agreement have been frozen since the start of the Iran war, and contact between the two countries was cut entirely after Israel's strike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase last Tuesday, said Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a Reuters interview in Damascus. Despite the freeze, Shaibani said he expects negotiations to resume soon, urging Israel to seize a "historic opportunity" for diplomacy.

"We believe there should be contact, especially with a party that constantly threatens the security of Syria," the foreign minister said. However, Shaibani offered a caveat that "if this contact doesn't bring results, then we don't need it. We do not trust Israel currently."

Israel's strike on Abu al-Duhur came after Israel said Damascus was preparing to allow Turkish forces to deploy at the base, a claim both Syria and Turkey denied. Shaibani said Syria's priority remains halting Israeli attacks, calling for confidence-building steps in that direction. "Israel has tried to maintain its security through brute force, and it hasn't succeeded," he said. "I believe negotiations will resume soon." No date has been set for talks to restart, though he said Washington "is trying continuously to put pressure on Israel to return to the dialogue table."

Shaibani said that around the beginning of the year, the two sides had "agreed on paper to almost everything" on a security deal that would require Israel to halt attacks on Syria and tie into its withdrawal from territory seized after Bashar al-Assad's fall. The draft included several security zones near the Israeli border, including a UN-only buffer zone and areas with varying levels of Syrian force deployment.

The foreign minister added that Israel ultimately sought to evade implementation: "We did not see they had the real will to reach an agreement."

Shaibani said Syria's immediate priority is to "stop Israeli aggression even before reaching a security agreement," adding that only afterward "can we open the topics of peace and the Golan." Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war, and the two countries have technically remained at war since 1948.

He also addressed a US-proposed deconfliction mechanism involving Israel, Turkey and Syria, saying no agreement has been reached and that it must "stop attacks" rather than "entrench... Israeli occupation." Shaibani added that Syria continues to rely on Turkish military training and support and "won't forgo" that assistance.