ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Damascus and Tel Aviv on Monday resumed talks after a four-month pause, Syrian state media reported, saying the negotiations - mediated by Washington - are focusing on de-escalating tensions along their shared borders and involve high-level diplomatic and intelligence officials from Syria.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) cited a government source as saying the Syrian delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Hussein al-Salama, chief of Damascus’s General Intelligence Directorate, who are “participating in the current round of negotiations with the Israeli side, coordinated and mediated by the United States of America.”
The resumption of talks, the source said, “affirms Syria’s steadfast commitment to restoring non-negotiable national rights,” adding that they fall within “the framework of a balanced security agreement that places full Syrian sovereignty above all considerations and guarantees the prevention of any form of interference in Syrian internal affairs.”
Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1974, a US-brokered Disengagement Agreement established a buffer zone monitored by the United Nations, aimed at reducing tensions by delineating separation lines between Syrian and Israeli forces without establishing formal peace.
More recently, following the ouster of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December 2024, Israel has intensified efforts to destroy Damascus’s military stockpiles.