Syria, Israel Hold US-Mediated Talks in Jordan to Ease Tensions

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met Israeli intelligence officials in Jordan, according to Syrian state media, as both sides work to de-escalate tensions following an Israeli attack on a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border.

Syria's Sana news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said the talks were mediated by the United States and involved a “high-level Israeli delegation.” AFP reported that al-Shaibani met with the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Roman Gofman.

According to Sana, the discussions “focused on establishing practical mechanisms to prevent Israeli attacks, arrests, and targeted operations” as well as “reviving negotiations on a long-term security agreement between the two sides.”

The talks also addressed efforts to reduce tensions between Israel and Turkey and to prevent their rivalry from spilling into Syrian territory, Sana reported.

The United States has sought to mediate a security agreement between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa for over a year. Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syria since long-time President Bashar al-Assad fell in December 2024 and has sent troops into a UN-monitored demilitarized zone that had long separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel also bombed the Abu Duhur airbase in northwestern Idlib on Thursday, saying the strike aimed to prevent Turkish troops from deploying there—a claim rejected by both Syria and Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have also traded barbs since the incident, heightening tensions between the two leaders.

According to Sana, the Syrian side stressed in Sunday's talks that “Syria is a sovereign state with the full right to rebuild and develop its national army, as well as to determine alliances and partnerships in line with national interests.” The Syrian side rejected “any arrangements or mechanisms that restrict these sovereign rights.”

Syria's immediate priorities in the talks are an Israeli withdrawal to pre-Assad positions and full restoration of the 1974 disengagement agreement, Sana reported. Syrian officials also reaffirmed Damascus's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli media described the talks as “positive” and said Israeli officials had laid out several “red lines” before entering negotiations. These include preventing Turkish military activity in Syria, keeping the Syrian side of the Golan Heights demilitarized, “ensuring the security” of the Druze community in Syria, and preventing the Syrian army from possessing certain strategic weapons systems. They also conditioned any withdrawal from occupied Syrian territory on “diplomatic achievements.”

In previous US-mediated rounds, Syria and Israel agreed on a joint mechanism for sharing intelligence and reducing tensions. But talks froze in late February when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran without setting a date to resume.

In an interview published ahead of the meeting, al-Shaibani told Reuters that Damascus does not trust Israel, but the door to diplomacy remains open. He said Syria had completely cut off communication after Israel's strike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase last week. al-Shaibani said the two sides had agreed on paper on “almost everything” around the start of the year, including deals on a security zone in southern Syria and a buffer zone where only UN forces would be present.

Hassan Mneimneh, a political analyst and fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera that the current round is unlikely to reduce tensions given Israel's track record. “On the contrary, with Syria expressing a desire to cool things down, Israel is likely to make more demands and have the Americans negotiate these with Syria, against any expansion of Turkish presence in the north and beyond,” he said.

Mneimneh added that Syria fears “the country will become a battlefield” between Israel and Turkey, and is concerned about Israel's seizure of territory in Syria, extending “up to Hermon, nearly all of Jabal al-Sheikh, and into three southern provinces.” Therefore, from Syria's perspective, talks with Israel seem aimed at avoiding “the disintegration of the Syrian state” as well as ensuring that any conflict between Israel and Turkey does not prevent Syria from “forming and consolidating its political institutions after al-Assad's fall.”