Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, told The Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday that good progress has been made on a potential deal with Israel, though he said any agreement hinges on Israel withdrawing from the territory it has captured since his forces ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
While it supported the regime change effort, Israel used the alleged threat of Sharaa’s group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to invade southwest Syria beyond the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the buffer zone established under a 1974 disengagement deal.
“Syria got into war with Israel 50 years ago. Then, in 1974, there was a disengagement agreement,” Sharaa told the Post. “This agreement lasted for 50 years. But when the [Assad] regime fell, Israel revoked this agreement. They expanded their presence in Syria, expelled the UN [peacekeeping] mission and occupied new territory.”
Sharaa noted that Israel conducted heavy airstrikes on Syria since Assad was ousted, which his forces haven’t responded to. “They have conducted over 1,000 airstrikes in Syria since December 8, and that included bombing the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense. But because we want to rebuild Syria, we didn’t respond to these aggressions,” he said.
Sharaa, formerly known by his al-Qaeda nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said that Israel’s military actions in Syria are not due to “security concerns” but part of its “expansionist ambitions.” He pointed out that by overthrowing Assad, his forces expelled Iran and Hezbollah from Syria. The previous Syrian government’s alignment with Iran and its allies was why Israel preferred a former al-Qaeda commander and his group of jihadists taking power in Damascus over Assad.
“Israel has always claimed that it has concerns about Syria because it is afraid of the threats that the Iranian militias and [Lebanon’s] Hezbollah represent. We are the ones who expelled those forces out of Syria,” Sharaa said. “We are engaged in direct negotiations with Israel, and we have gone a good distance on the way to reach an agreement. But to reach a final agreement, Israel should withdraw to their pre-December 8 borders.”
Sharaa was interviewed by the Post on Monday following his White House meeting with President Trump and said the American leader agreed with his position. “Today, we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this,” he said.
A security deal between Israel and Syria could get the US much more involved in Syria, as Reuters has reported that the US is planning to establish a military presence at an air base in Damascus to monitor any potential agreement. Israel wants a deal that would demilitarize southern Syria, but Sharaa pushed back on that idea in the interview.
“Israel occupied the Golan Heights in order to protect Israel, and now they are imposing conditions in the south of Syria in order to protect the Golan Heights. So after a few years, maybe they will occupy the center of Syria in order to protect the south of Syria. They will reach Munich on that pathway,” he said.
