Syrian and Israeli officials met in Paris at a US-brokered summit attended by Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, and US envoy Tom Barrack. Agenda items included de-escalation of bilateral tensions, non-interference in Syrian domestic affairs, reactivation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, and humanitarian assistance for Syria's Druze minority. Syria's SANA reported a commitment to further talks, while Israel declined public comment. The meeting follows a prior July round that ended without agreement and marks the first direct high-level communication after 25 years, amid ongoing Israeli strikes, troop deployments near the Golan Heights, and Syrian statements rejecting escalation.
For the first time in decades, Syrian and Israeli officials held high-level face-to-face talks. Earlier this week, the US-brokered summit in Paris was attended behind closed doors by Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and the US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack. Key points on the agenda were the de-escalation of tensions between Syria and Israel, non-interference in Syrian domestic affairs and reactivating a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria.
A further issue was humanitarian assistance for Syria's Druze minority. On Wednesday, an Israeli government spokesperson told DW that Israel refrained from commenting on the Paris meeting. But Syria's national SANA news agency reported that the meeting concluded with the comittment to further talks. A previous round of talks with supporting officials in late July had ended without an official agreement.
These direct talks mark a diplomatic shift after 25 years of virtually no communication at all. The two countries have technically been at war since 1967. That year, Israel occupied Syria's Golan Heights a strategic plateau along their shared border and later annexed it in 1981. The international community continues to regard the Golan Heights as Syrian territory under Israeli military occupation. To date, only the United States and Israel officially recognize it as part of Israel.
A ceasefire deal in 1974 set up a demilitarized UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights along the Israel-Syria border. However, tensions between the countries have been soaring since the fall of Syria's long-term dictator Bashar Assad in December 2024. Israel deployed troops beyond the demilitarized zone and carried out around 1,000 strikes on Syria which has not retaliated. Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa condemned the attacks but repeatedly said that he doesn't want to go to war with Israel.
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