Syria and Israel have been locked in a state of hostility for decades, but the new authorities in Damascus are taking a different tack with their neighbor to the south.
Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Shara, is using diplomatic channels and engaging in indirect discussions with Israel, which the United States has helped mediate, to resolve problems along the border, according to Syrian, Israeli and American officials. The two countries have kept up contact even as the Israeli military has carried out incursions into southern Syria that raised fears of a prolonged occupation.
While the goals appear modest, these are the most serious talks between them in more than a decade and a departure from the former government’s animosity toward Israel. The negotiations reflect a power shift across the Middle East, where Israel and Syria now find they have common ground.
Both share an antipathy toward Iran, which was a close ally of the deposed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, during his 13-year civil war against an array of Syrian rebel groups. Mr. al-Shara led an alliance of some of those rebel groups that overthrew Mr. al-Assad in December.
Israel and the new Syrian leadership also share security concerns about Iran-backed proxy groups, which they want to prevent from infiltrating Syria. And both Mr. al-Shara and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have found an ally in President Trump.
The United States has helped broker the back-channel discussions between the two countries, according to Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Mr. Trump’s envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey. He has called for Israel and Syria to begin repairing their relations by signing a nonaggression pact.
The U.S. has publicly called for Syria to join the Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab states during Mr. Trump’s first term. Syrian officials, however, have shown no inclination to join the accords imminently, or otherwise normalize ties with Israel, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
The aim of the current talks appears to be more limited.
“Based on what I absorbed and heard from the president, we’re less likely to hear about Abraham Accords in the short term and more likely to hear about de-conflicting and making sure Israel and Syria are not enemies,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the director for global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization.
Rabbi Cooper met with Mr. al-Shara last month in Damascus along with Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader with ties to the Trump administration.
Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, said on Friday that Syria was open to cooperating with the United States to restore the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Israel, which established a U.N.- patrolled buffer zone between their forces on the Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Golan, a strategic plateau, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it. Even though the Golan is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and Syria, Rabbi Cooper said it did not come up in his meeting with Mr. al-Shara.
A return to a 1974 disengagement agreement would effectively reimpose a cease-fire that was in effect in the Golan Heights before Mr. Assad’s ouster. After he was toppled, Israeli officials said they considered the accord void until order was restored in Syria.
While that agreement falls short of a peace treaty, it could effectively restore quiet and lay the groundwork for an easing of tensions.
Talk of normal diplomatic relations is premature, according to the four officials with knowledge of the indirect negotiations, and several others who have met with Mr. al-Shara and discussed the topic. Still, their accounts paint a picture of a Syrian president more pragmatic and open to engaging with Israel than his predecessors of the past five decades.
“My conclusion is he is a unicorn,” Rabbi Cooper said of the Syrian leader. “But we should still trust but verify,” he added, acknowledging the persistent skepticism of Mr. al-Shara because of his jihadist roots.
The negotiations have developed despite tensions between Syria and Israel. Syria’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the fall of Mr. al-Assad, the Israeli military moved deeper into parts of southern Syria. It also launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets in Syria and deployed forces across the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
Israeli officials have defended the military actions as necessary to ensure that no hostile forces entrench themselves in Syrian territory near Israel.
Israeli officials have also expressed deep skepticism about Mr. al-Shara, who led a rebel faction once linked to Al Qaeda. While Mr. al-Shara has insisted he wants to be a reliable partner to the West, Israeli leaders are concerned that he will establish an Islamist, anti-Israel government.
Within Syria, Israel’s military actions have stoked fears that Israel may seek to maintain a military presence on Syrian soil indefinitely and expand its operations beyond the southern border areas.
In recent weeks, there have been some signs of progress in the negotiations.
After initially referring to Mr. al-Shara as a terrorist — a reference to his former ties with Al Qaeda — Israeli officials said last week that they had an interest in normalizing relations with Syria and neighboring Lebanon.
On Monday, the Trump administration revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that Mr. al-Shara led before taking over Syria. It was the latest good-will gesture toward Mr. al-Shara from Mr. Trump, who has also lifted most U.S. economic sanctions on Syria recently.
In a meeting in late April, Mr. al-Shara said the Abraham Accords were not the right fit for Syria, according to Mouaz Moustafa, the head of a U.S.-based political advocacy group, the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who was present. Mr. al-Shara said that any agreement with Israel would need public support from Syrians, Mr. Moustafa said.
Mohanad Hage Ali, a fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, questioned whether Syria’s position was tactical, intended to keep Israeli forces at bay, or truly a strategic shift.
“There seems to be an understanding taking shape on the security level,” he said. “But on the political level, we haven’t seen any grand gestures.”
Christina Goldbaum is the Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief for The Times, leading the coverage of the region.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
The post After Decades of Hostility, Israeli-Syrian Relations Begin to Thaw appeared first on New York Times.
