New York, September 25: Syria and Israel are close to reaching a “de-escalation” agreement under which Israel would halt its attacks while Syria refrains from moving heavy machinery near the border, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Barrack said the accord would mark the first step toward a broader security deal the two countries have been negotiating. U.S. President Donald Trump has been seeking to broker an agreement this week, though progress has been slowed by the Jewish New Year holiday, he added.
“I think everybody is approaching it in good faith,” Barrack said.
Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist rebel forces that toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad last December, has pressed for an agreement that would halt Israeli airstrikes and secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Syria.
Israel abandoned its 1974 truce with Damascus on Dec. 8, the day Assad was ousted, and has since carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes and 400 ground incursions into Syria, according to Sharaa. Israel has voiced strong opposition to Sharaa’s Islamist-led government, citing his jihadist background, and has lobbied Washington to ensure Syria remains weak and decentralised.
At a separate event in New York, Sharaa said he feared Israel was deliberately slowing the negotiations. “We are scared of Israel. We are worried about Israel. It’s not the other way around,” he told an audience.
The talks, if successful, would mark the first substantive effort at de-escalation since Assad’s ouster, though deep political mistrust and territorial disputes continue to divide the two neighbours.
