Though there have been reports of indirect talks for months now, Tuesday marked the first time it was publicly confirmed that Israel and Syria’s Islamist government held direct talks, with a US-brokered meeting held in Paris.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani was present for the talks, and while it has yet to be publicly confirmed who was in the Israeli delegation, some outlets are reporting that top Netanyahu adviser Ron Dermer was among them.
The talks were said to be aimed at reducing hostility between the two nations, particularly in the south, and also to discuss Syrian territorial integrity. There are even suggestions they may return to something resembling the 1974 ceasefire between the two.
US envoy Barrack, French FM Barrot, and Syrian FM Shaibani
In December, the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over Syria from President Bashar al-Assad. Almost immediately thereafter, Israel invaded southwestern Syria and seized substantial territory within the demilitarized zone between the two.
That invasion has only grown since then, with Israeli troops moving deeper into those governorates, and launching continued attacks against old Syrian military assets south of Damascus. In addition, Israel has declared Syria’s military to be forbidden from the entire south of Syria.
While the talks are aimed at cooling tensions, Israeli troops have continued to operate within Syria. On Tuesday in addition to the Paris talks, the Israeli Army also raided the border village of al-Asha, seizing over 200 sheep from the locals and taking them back to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
As is often the case with Israel’s operations inside Syria, the IDF has not commented yet on the action, nor offered any sort of plausible explanation for seizing the sheep of the local villagers.
Early Wednesday morning another incident was reported near Mount Hermon, inside the demilitarized zone. Israeli troops operating in the area stumbled across old munitions, reportedly an old unexploded hand grenade. Four Israeli troops were wounded in the incident, only lightly so. An investigation is ongoing for why that hand grenade exploded now.
Since taking power, the HTS has repeatedly pushed for improved relations with Israel, though the active invasion has substantially undercut that process. Israel, for its part, has condemned the HTS as a threat to Israel, and only recently confirmed that they are engaging in talks with them at all. The two nations have technically been in a state of war since 1948, and talks to normalize relations fully will likely take quite some time, though there seems to be at least some interest to move toward less overt hostility.
