Al-Sharaa: Golan negotiations possible only after security agreement

Al-Sharaa stated that Damascus could enter talks with Israel if the two sides reach a security agreement guaranteeing the withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas they entered following the overthrow of the previous government.

Speaking during a dialogue session at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey, he said: “Israel is violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement. We are now working to reach a security arrangement that ensures its withdrawal from the lands it occupied after the fall of the former regime, and its return to the 1974 lines, alongside establishing new rules—either reinstating the disengagement agreement or concluding a new agreement that guarantees security for both sides.”

He added that if such an agreement is reached, “we may engage in long-term negotiations to resolve the issue of the occupied Golan,” reiterating that “any recognition by any state of Israel’s claim to the occupied Syrian Golan is invalid.”

Israel captured parts of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War and later annexed the territory in 1981 in a move not recognized by the international community, with the exception of the United States.

Following the fall of the Baathist regime in December 2024, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military sites and deployed forces in a buffer zone monitored by the United Nations, separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan—a move the UN has described as a violation of the disengagement agreement.

a.k

ANHA