A Syrian delegation including Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani was holding a new round of negotiations with Israel on Monday, state news agency SANA reported, the first in several months.<\/p>\n
Quoting a government source, SANA said the talks were coordinated and mediated by Washington, adding that the discussions were focused on reaching “a balanced security agreement” between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Two diplomatic sources told AFP that the US-mediated talks were being held in Paris.<\/p>\n
SANA said the negotiations were focused on reactivating a 1974 disengagement agreement and guaranteeing “the withdrawal of Israeli forces” to their positions before the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.<\/p>\n
After Assad’s ousting, Israel sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights for decades.<\/p>\n
Israel has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory since then, as well as bombings, and has said it wants a demilitarised zone in the country’s south.<\/p>\n
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to Shaibani on Monday in Paris, the French foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The two ministers stressed the importance of working towards the restoration of a unified, stable and sovereign Syria. In that regard, they mentioned the necessity of coming to a security arrangement with Israel in Syria’s south,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
The United States has been pushing Syria and Israel to reach an agreement that would halt hostilities between the two countries, technically at war since 1948.<\/p>\n
“The resumption of these negotiations is confirmation of Syria’s firm commitment to restoring its non-negotiable national rights,” the government source told SANA, adding that intelligence chief Hussein al-Salama was also part of the delegation.<\/p>\n
Syria and Israel opened direct negotiations after Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led coalition.<\/p>\n
Officials have met on several occasions, most recently in September, but Israel’s insistence on a demilitarised zone in southern Syria has been a major stumbling block.<\/p>\n
Last month, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said the demand would endanger his country and urged Israel to respect the 1974 deal.<\/p>\n
bur-lar\/lg\/dcp\/yad\/des<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Syrian delegation including Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani was holding a new round of negotiations with Israel on Monday, state news agency SANA reported, the first in several months. Quoting a government source, SANA said the talks were coordinated and mediated by Washington, adding that the discussions were focused on reaching “a balanced security agreement” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[95,101,93,125],"class_list":["post-23355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional","tag-conflict","tag-diplomacy","tag-israel","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23358,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23355\/revisions\/23358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}