After almost 14 years of war in Syria, the new government resets its regional relations and focuses a lot on what will happen with Israel.
There are reports of talks between Syria and Israel, the deadlines that were even floated for potential normalization between the two countries, which have been technically at war since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Here is what you need to know about a possible normalization between Syria and Israel:
What has happened so far?
According to Israeli media, in Syria and Israel have had direct talks, about the potential adoption of a standardization agreement.
Communication between the two states would have been facilitated by the United Arab Emirates, which established a great-metnel for contacts.
Any agreement would probably be an extension of the Abraham agreements, an agreement negotiated by the United States between certain Arab states and Israel.
The Abraham agreements were a descending approach to Donald Trump during his first mandate as American president to bring the Arab states to formalize relations with Israel.
They were signed in August and September 2020 by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and soon followed by Sudan and Morocco.
Since then, Trump has worked to extend the agreements by pushing more countries to sign agreements with Israel.
Trump visited three countries in the Middle East in May and, while in Saudi Arabia, he met the new president of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, and encouraged him to normalize relations with Israel.
Is normalization possible?
Perhaps at the bottom of the road, say the analysts, but at the moment, it would be almost impossible, according to the Syrian writer and author Robin Yassin-Kassab.
There is a deep enmity between Syria and Israel, which has strengthened during the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 and the occupation of Israel of the Golan Syrian heights.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Gideon Saar, said that his country would insist on his occupation of the Golan Heights in any agreement with Syria, and the Israeli army went deeper into the Golan, occupying houses and expelling people from the region.
Many Syrians would abandon the abandonment of the Golan to Israel, according to analysts. However, many could accommodate common sense negotiations.
“The Syrians are divided … Because one part, people are exhausted, everyone recognizes that Syria cannot defend themselves or fight Israel … So it is a good negotiation (from Al-Sharaa),” said Yassin-Kassab, adding that a return to an agreement like the 1974 ceasefire is the most realistic option.
About a week after the president of the time, Bashar al -Assad, fled Syria in December 2024, the Israeli Parliament voted on a plan aimed at extending the regulations in Syria – illegal under international law. There are currently more than 31,000 Israeli settlers in occupied Golan Heights.
Syria, under Al-Sharaa, said that it was open to peace with Israel and that it would support a cease-fire agreement from 1974 between the two states, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on December 8-the day al-Assad fled to Moscow-that he considered the agreement as a locking.
Israel has attacked Syria several times, destroying a large part of its military infrastructure and entering the Syrian territory near the border with the heights of Golan de la Syria.
Syria would likely ask Israel to withdraw from the newly occupied area within the framework of a new non-aggression agreement, although the reports indicate that the Golan Heights have not yet been discussed.
What moves were made recently?
In recent days, Israeli officials have said that they were open to an agreement with Syria, and Netanyahu would have asked us about the special envoy Tom Barrack to help negotiate one.
The head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, has supervised discussions with Syrian officials. The talks include an American presence and are in “advanced steps”, according to senior Israeli officials who spoke in the era of Israel.
Figures close to Al-Sharaa would have asked for the end of the Israeli aggression without Syria having to accept complete normalization, reported the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.
What would Syria be in talks with Israel?
Syria wants Israeli attacks against Syrian territory to cease.
There are concerns concerning the extended occupation of Israel of the Golan Heights among many Syrians; However, it is not clear if the government of Al-Sharaa will demand the return of the occupied parties.
Syria, however, would like Israel to withdraw from the Golan proper and the parts it occupied in the past year.
Israel has also threatened the new Syrian government not Deploy soldiers south of Damascus, a region near its border with Israel.
Israel has also tried to stoer sectarianism in this area, threatening to intervene to “protect the Syrian Druze” during sectarian tensions between groups affiliated with the Syrian government and the minority community of Syria.
While many members of the Druze community have shown mistrust of the new Syrian government, many have also denounced Israel’s intervention threats as a calculated blow to cause a new discord among the Syrians.
What would Israel want?
Netanyahu wishes a security agreement – an update on the 1974 text – with a framework towards a total peace plan with Syria.
The American envoy Barrack claims that the question between Syria and Israel is “resoluble” and suggested that they begin with a “non-aggression agreement”, according to Axios.
Such a continuous occupation of the Golan would probably upset many Syrians.
“It is too politically difficult (for Al-Sharaa), even under American pressure and the continuous threat of violence of Israel,” said Yassin-Kassab.
Israel would also have additional conditions: no Turkish military bases in Syria, no presence of Iran groups or supported by Iran such as Hezbollah and demilitarization of southern Syria.