DAMASCUS: Syria is seeking to reach a security agreement with Israel, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday. He said a deal could pave the way for comprehensive peace between the two countries without compromising Syria’s right to the Golan Heights, an area that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981.
Sharaa said Syria was trying to involve a large group of countries to pressure Israel to adopt a more balanced policy toward Syria.
“We are avoiding getting into confrontations,” he added. Soon after former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad fell to rebel forces advancing under Sharaa’s leadership in December 2024, Israeli troops pushed into Syria and seized strategic territories. Israeli troops moved into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, which overlooks the capital Damascus. Since then, the Israeli military has launched strikes on Syria and detained individuals from within the country. Israel has also intervened in what it calls missions to protect ethnic minority Druze in southwestern Syria.
On Sunday, Israeli forces shelled areas in Syria and destroyed an electrical transformer in the village of Maariyah, depriving homes of power, Syria’s state news agency SANA said. Sharaa’s comments coincided with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visiting Syria, the first trip by a United Nations chief to the country since 2009.
