Syria’s international minister held a uncommon assembly with an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday, the Syrian state-run information company reported. The talks have been brokered by the USA, which has been pushing for Syria and Israel to normalize relations, the report mentioned.
The SANA information company mentioned International Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani met with Israeli officers to debate deescalating tensions and restoring a 1974 ceasefire settlement. The talks resulted in “understandings that help stability within the area,” in accordance the company.
“These talks are happening below US mediation, as a part of diplomatic efforts geared toward enhancing safety and stability in Syria and preserving the unity and integrity of its territory,” it added.
There was no instant remark from Israel on Tuesday’s talks, which Hebrew media shops earlier reported can be attended by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who’s a prime aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.
Dermer and al-Shaibani beforehand met in Azerbaijan late final month, and held another meeting in Paris the week earlier than that.
“The USA continues to help any efforts that can deliver lasting stability and peace between Israel and its neighbors,” a senior Trump administration official, who was not approved to remark publicly, instructed the Related Press after Tuesday’s assembly.
The official famous US President Donald Trump’s outlined “imaginative and prescient of a affluent Center East” that features a “steady Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors — together with Israel,” including that “we wish to do the whole lot we are able to to assist obtain that.”
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, proper, meets with US Ambassador to Turkey and Particular Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, on the Folks’s Palace in Damascus, Syria, July 9, 2025. (AP Picture/Ghaith Alsayed)
Tensions have soared between Jerusalem and Damascus following the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December. Israeli forces seized management of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria shortly after the Assad regime’s overthrow and carried out airstrikes on navy websites in what officers mentioned was geared toward making a demilitarized zone south of Damascus.
Israel has mentioned it is not going to permit hostile forces to ascertain themselves alongside the frontier, as Iranian-backed teams did throughout Assad’s rule. It distrusts Syria’s new authorities, which is led by former jihadists.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander, has pledged to construct a brand new nation that respects the rights of minorities, however sectarian violence has erupted on various events, elevating issues concerning the nation’s fragile transition.
Israel stepped up its intervention when violence erupted in Syria’s southern Sweida province final month between Bedouin clans and authorities forces on one facet and armed teams from the Druze non secular minority on the opposite.
The battle then prompted airstrikes towards Syrian forces by Israel in protection of the Druze earlier than a truce — mediated by the US, Turkey and Arab international locations — halted a lot of the preventing.
Israel mentioned it was performing to guard the Druze, who’re seen as a loyal minority in Israel and serve within the navy. Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of Syrian forces round Sweida and struck the headquarters of the Syrian Ministry of Protection within the coronary heart of Damascus, Syria’s capital.
A person waves an Israeli flag throughout an illustration by Druze within the southern Syrian metropolis of Sweida calling for self-determination, August 16, 2025. (X screenshot)
Although the preventing has largely calmed down, Syrian authorities forces have surrounded town of Sweida, named after the province, and the Druze have mentioned that little support is getting in, describing the state of affairs as a siege.
Barrack, the US envoy brokering the Israel-Syria talks, met Tuesday in Paris with Israeli Druze chief Sheikh Muafak Tarif. In a press release on the “wonderful” assembly, Tarif mentioned the Druze need American help with an finish to the blockade and humanitarian support for the folks there, the return of the Druze who have been kidnapped through the preventing, in addition to American assurances of Druze safety.
Barrack wrote on X that his “heat and informative assembly” with Tarif addressed the state of affairs in Sweida and “find out how to deliver collectively the pursuits of all events, deescalate tensions, and construct understanding.”
In the present day I had a heat and informative assembly with Israeli Druze religious chief Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif and his group. We mentioned the state of affairs in Suwayda and find out how to deliver collectively the pursuits of all events, de-escalate tensions, and construct understanding. pic.twitter.com/A7htbbSl2r
— Ambassador Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) August 19, 2025
Whereas the Druze in Syria have traditionally been cautious of Israel, an growing quantity are actually open to looking for Israeli help. Lots of demonstrated in Sweida on Saturday to demand the correct to self dedication for the Druze minority, with some protesters waving Israeli flags.
Movies and images of the demonstration circulating on social media sparked outrage from many different Syrians, who accused the protesters of being traitors.
Israel and Syria have technically been at battle since 1948. Israel conquered round two-thirds of the Golan Heights from Syria through the Six Day Struggle of June 1967, and annexed the territory in 1981, in a transfer not acknowledged by a lot of the worldwide neighborhood, except the USA.
A 12 months after the Yom Kippur Struggle of October 1973, Israel and Syria reached an settlement on the disengagement line that Damascus is now pushing to revive.
International Minister Gideon Sa’ar mentioned in June that whereas Israel had an “curiosity” in normalizing ties with Syria and neighboring Lebanon, the Golan Heights “will stay a part of the State of Israel” below any future peace settlement, which the Syrian authorities has mentioned is untimely to debate.
