With US envoy Tom Barrack in attendance in Paris, Syrian and Israeli government ministers met in what is being called “de-escalation” talks aimed to reduce the growing tensions amid the ongoing Israeli invasion of southwestern Syria and the sectarian violence in the Suwayda Governorate.
Talk began on Thursday evening, and involved Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. Israel reportedly pushed heavily on demands for southern Syria – effectively the entire nation south of Damascus, to remain a “demilitarized” zone.
Israel originally made the demand for southern Syria’s full demilitarization back in February, and has used that as a pretext for military strikes against Syria several times since then, most recently in mid-July when they attacked Suwayda as well as the Defense Ministry in Damascus, nominally to “protect” the Druze minority.
US envoy Barrack, French FM Barrot, and Syrian FM Shaibani | Image from SANA
Syria’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government came to power in December, and was pushing the idea of being friendly with Israel since then, even though Israel invaded almost immediately thereafter. Amid the most recent strikes though, there has been disquiet among HTS officials, emphasizing the right to defend the nation.
The US even offered rare criticism of the Israeli strikes earlier in July, with Barrack accusing them of trying to divide Syria. Israeli officials have more or less pushed the idea of Syria being divided into several smaller nations since the regime change, so that isn’t new, but the US publicly not supporting Israel’s position is.
It’s not entirely clear what was accomplished during these latest Israel-Syria talks, which are happening concurrent to “normalization” talks that have been confirmed to be going on behind the scenes. Syrian state-run media has reported that future talks will be held on de-escalation, with Baku reportedly being considered as the next location.
This was the first ministerial meeting by Syrian and Israeli officials since 2000. Foreign Minister Shaibani also met with Barrack and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, and the three issued a joint statement expressing their support for a unified Syria under HTS rule. They also encouraging “transparency” in investing acts of violence in the country.
That’s likely to be an ongoing concern. Two major large-scale massacres of religious minorities have happened already so far this year, with the crackdown on Alawites in the coastal north and the violence against Druze in Suwayda each claiming over 1,000 deaths and involving security forces participating in summary executions. Though the HTS has declared those crises “over” the killing never really stopped, but rather just slowed down from the fevered pace of killings at their peak. In both cases there is a palpable fear that things are going to get worse and that these were just previews of the agenda of the Islamist supporters of HTS.
