Syria foreign minister says door open for diplomacy with Israel

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani says the door for diplomacy with Israel is open, urging it to seize a "historic opportunity".
47% : That deal would include several security zones in Syrian territory near the Israeli border, including ⁠a buffer zone where only the United Nations would be present, and others where Syrian forces would deploy in varying ⁠degrees of force.
46% : The United States has been trying to broker a security deal between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a new US ally in the Middle East, for ⁠more than a year.
44% : In an interview with the Reuters news agency, published on Sunday, al-Shaibani said he expects the talks over a security deal that would lead to Israel's withdrawal from Syrian territory to resume soon.
43% : " He said the US is pressuring Israel to return to the dialogue table.
42% : Al-Shaibani said Syria respected Israel's security concerns but that it must also respect those of Damascus, instead of violating its airspace and conducting raids and arrests in the south of the country.
41% : US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, said last week that Washington was working to establish a mechanism to prevent conflict among Israel, Turkiye and Syria.
39% : "We do not trust Israel currently.
39% : "Israel has tried to maintain its security through brute force, and it hasn't succeeded" anywhere, al-Shaibani said.
39% : Asked how optimistic he was that talks would resume, al-Shaibani said: "It's very hard to bet on Israel."
38% : However, he said, Israel had sought to evade implementation, adding: "We did not see they had the real will to reach an agreement.
38% : Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967.
37% : He said negotiations over the security agreement were frozen at the start of the US-Israel war on Iran and that no date has been set for a resumption of talks.
36% : But an agreement has proven elusive as Israel has sent troops into Syrian territory and attacked government assets, citing threats to its security.
34% : In the days after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in 2024, Israel seized territory in southwest Syria, citing the need to safeguard its citizens against attack, and bombed dozens of Syrian military sites.
33% : He said earlier this year, ⁠the two sides had "agreed on paper to almost everything" regarding a security deal that would require Israel to stop attacking Syria and was tied to its withdrawal from territory seized after al-Assad fell.
33% : " Golan Heights a sticking point Syria and Israel have technically been in a state of war since 1948.
28% : Al-Shaibani said Israel had bombed Abu al-Duhur even after Syria conveyed a message that it would not be a Turkish base.
27% : Israeli attacks cast doubt on will to make deal Tensions over Syria were brought into focus last week when Israel bombed the Abu al-Duhur airbase, saying Damascus was about to allow Turkish forces to deploy there.

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