Syria and Israel in Direct Talks Focused on Security Rather Than Normalization

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
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Syria and Israel in Direct Talks Focused on Security Rather Than Normalization

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem/File Photo

Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have in recent weeks held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The contacts mark a significant development in ties between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades, as the US encourages the new rulers in Damascus to establish relations with Israel and Israel eases its bombardment of Syria.

They also build on back-channel talks via intermediaries since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, said two Syrian and two Western sources, as well as a regional intelligence source familiar with the matter.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject for two nations with no official ties and a history of enmity. The direct talks and their scope have not been previously reported.

On the Syrian side, the sources said contacts have been led by senior security official Ahmad al-Dalati, who was appointed governor of the province of Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after the fall of Assad.

Earlier this week, Dalati was also put in charge of security in the southern province of Sweida, home to Syria's Druze minority.

Reuters could not determine who participated on Israel's side, though two of the sources said they were security officials.

Three of the sources said there had been several rounds of in-person meetings in the border region, including in territory controlled by Israel.

Israel's foreign ministry and Syrian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed indirect talks with Israel that he said were aimed at calming tensions, a striking admission that followed a Reuters report that the UAE was mediating such talks.

Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and took more territory in the aftermath of Assad's ouster in December, citing lingering concerns over the extremist past of the country's new rulers.

It has also waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of the country's military infrastructure, while at the same time lobbying Washington to keep the country weak and decentralized.

But the bombing and the criticism have subsided in recent weeks.

On May 14, a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Sharaa in Riyadh upended decades of US-Syria policy, and signaled to Israel's right-wing government that it should work to reach understandings with al-Sharaa.

The regional intelligence source described Trump's engagement with al-Sharaa as a pivotal part of a realignment in US policy that upset Israel's post-Assad strategy of exploiting Syria's fragmentation.

The relative calm in May has also seen a reduction in tensions around Sweida, which saw days of bloody clashes between Druze armed factions, some of which enjoy Israeli backing, and Sunni fighters last month.

Amid the violence, Israel had launched a series of airstrikes, including one just outside the presidential palace overlooking Damascus, which it framed as a warning over threats against the Druze.

Broader Understandings?

While the direct talks are currently focused on joint security, such as preventing conflict and reducing Israeli incursions into Syrian border villages, two of the sources said they may help pave the way for broader political understandings.

“For now, they are about peace, as in the absence of war, rather than normalization,” said the person familiar with backchannel talks.

Trump indicated after meeting Sharaa that the Syrian President was willing to eventually normalize ties with Israel, while adding that it would take some time.

Al-Sharaa has not commented on the statement, saying instead that he supported a return to the terms of a 1974 ceasefire agreement that created a UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Syria's new rulers have made repeated efforts to show they pose no threat to Israel, meeting representatives of the Jewish community in Damascus and abroad and detaining two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

A letter sent by Syria's foreign ministry to the US State Department last month, seen by Reuters, said “we will not allow Syria to become a source of threat to any party, including Israel.”

More recently, Syria's leadership has shown goodwill by approving the handover of a trove of long-dead Israeli master spy Eli Cohen's belongings.



Trump Says Deal for Ceasefire in Gaza Is Closer After Israel Agrees on Terms

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches near the shore during the sunset in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches near the shore during the sunset in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP)
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Trump Says Deal for Ceasefire in Gaza Is Closer After Israel Agrees on Terms

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches near the shore during the sunset in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches near the shore during the sunset in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP)

US President Donald Trump says Israel has agreed on terms for a new 60-day ceasefire with Hamas and that Washington would work with both sides during that time to try to end more than 20 months of war in Gaza.

Neither side has accepted the proposal announced Tuesday by Trump, who has admonished Hamas that if the group does not buy into the offer, its prospects will get worse. It's not clear what conditions Israel agreed to.

The efforts to reach a truce are unfolding in the wake of powerful Israeli and American strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, which has long supported Hamas, and just days before Trump is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

Here's a look at the situation and the challenges it might present.

Details are murky

Details of the proposed ceasefire are just beginning to emerge. But rather than being completely new, the potential deal seems to be a somewhat modified version of a framework proposed earlier this year by Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Trump said Tuesday in a social media post that Qatar and Egypt have been working on the details and would deliver a final proposal to Hamas.

An Egyptian official involved in the ceasefire talks told The Associated Press that the proposal calls for Hamas to release 10 more hostages during the two-month period — eight on the first day and two on the final day. During that period, Israel would withdraw troops from some parts of Gaza and allow badly needed aid into the territory.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. The group is believed to still have some 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them thought to be alive.

The Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, said a sticking point over how aid would be distributed had been resolved with Israel.

He said both sides have agreed that the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent would lead aid operations and that the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund would also continue to operate.

Hamas has been weakened

The unraveling of Iran’s regional network of proxies, capped by the blow inflicted on Iran during the recent 12-day war with Israel, has left Hamas weaker and more isolated in the region. Iran was a key backer of the group, but its influence has waned, and it's now preoccupied with its own problems.

At the same time, Trump has made it clear to Israel that he wants to see the Israel-Hamas war end soon. While he has been supportive of Netanyahu, Trump had tough words for Israel in the opening hours of last week's ceasefire with Iran, when he pressured Israel to scale back its response to an Iranian missile attack. That could help persuade Hamas to embrace a deal.

A diplomat briefed on the talks said there is now a “big opportunity” to reach an agreement. “The indications we’re getting are people are ready.”

He said Trump’s harsh talk toward Israel has “given a bit of confidence to Hamas” that the US will guarantee any future deal and prevent a return to fighting. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing behind-the-scenes diplomatic contacts.

Israeli military positions and future talks pose obstacles

The Egyptian official said Israel has not yet agreed to a proposal to withdraw its forces to positions held in early March after a previous ceasefire officially expired. Since then, the Israeli army has seized large swaths of Gaza to put pressure on Hamas, and it's not clear whether Israel is ready to return to those same positions.

An Israeli official characterized the agreement as a 60-day deal that would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in humanitarian aid to the territory.

The mediators and the US would provide assurances about talks on ending the war, but Israel is not committing to that as part of the latest proposal, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the details of the deal with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Egyptian official said Hamas will have to review the proposal with other factions before submitting an official response.

One point that does seem to have been ironed out is the question of who will administer Gaza.

Israel has said Hamas cannot run the territory, and the Egyptian official said the proposal would instead put Gaza under a group of Palestinians without political affiliations known as the Community Support Committee once a ceasefire is reached.

Potentially complicating the effort, Netanyahu reiterated his hard-line position Wednesday, vowing that “there will be no Hamas” following the 60-day ceasefire plan.

Previous ceasefire did not last

A previous ceasefire agreed to in January established three phases, but the two sides never made it past phase one.

During that time, however, there were multiple exchanges of Hamas-held hostages for prisoners held by Israel, and critical humanitarian aid was able to reach Gaza.

When phase one expired on March 1, Israel sought to extend it while Hamas argued that phase two should go ahead as planned.

The second phase would have compelled Hamas to release all the remaining living hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

That was always seen as difficult, because it would have forced Israel to choose between its two main war goals — the safe return of the hostages and the annihilation of Hamas.

On March 18, Israel broke the ceasefire with new airstrikes and resumed hostilities.

In Gaza, residents expressed hope that this time, a ceasefire will bring an end to the war.

“We are seriously tired,” said Asmaa al-Gendy, who has been living in a tent camp in Deir al Balah with her two children. The family has been displaced and starved and endured "every form of torture in the world.”