Syria foreign minister sees Israel security talks resuming despite no trust

Syria expects negotiations to resume soon with Israel over a security deal it hopes will lead to Israel's withdrawal from Syrian land, a top Syrian minister said, urging Israel to seize a "historic opportunity" ‌as the door for diplomacy is open.

In a Reuters interview in Damascus on Saturday, days after Israel bombed a Syrian airbase, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also stressed that Damascus' priority is to halt Israeli attacks, saying confidence-building steps were needed in this direction.

Shaibani said negotiations over the security agreement had been frozen since the start of the Iran war, but he expected them to restart. Contact between Syria and Israel was cut after the airbase strike, he ⁠said.

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

"Israel has tried to maintain its security through brute force and it hasn’t succeeded" anywhere, Shaibani said. "I believe negotiations will resume soon."

No date has been set.

"The U.S. is trying continuously to put pressure on Israel to return to the dialogue table," he added.

Asked how optimistic he was, Shaibani said: "It’s very hard to bet on Israel." But Syria had "very great hope" of building stable relationships with its neighbours.

"Syria is extending its hand for understandings, for peace, for ‌diplomacy" and regional ⁠stability.

Shaibani said Syria respected Israel's security concerns but that Israel must respect those of Syria, including Israel's use of its airspace, Israeli raids and arrests in the south.

He said that around the beginning of the year, the sides had "agreed on paper to almost everything" regarding a security deal that would require Israel to stop attacking Syria and was tied to its withdrawal from territory seized after Assad fell.

The deal would include several security zones ⁠in Syrian territory near the Israeli border, including a buffer zone where only the United Nations would be present, and others where Syrian forces would deploy in varying degrees of force.

But he said Israel had sought to evade implementation, adding: "We did not see they had the real will to reach an agreement."

The ⁠priority now is to "stop Israeli aggression even before reaching a security agreement," Shaibani said. "Then perhaps we can open the topics of peace and the Golan."

U.S. special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that Washington was working to establish a mechanism to prevent conflict among Israel, Turkey and Syria.

Shaibani said there was no agreement yet on the mechanism, which he said must stop attacks and pave the way for ⁠the security deal rather than "entrenching ... Israeli occupation."

Reuters