Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said his nation is “actively working” to establish a security agreement with Israel during an exclusive interview Sunday with Al Jazeera’s Al Muqabala program.
Al-Sharaa said several other nations were participating in the security talks and that any agreement reached would not involve renouncing Syria’s claim to the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Israel has occupied additional Syrian territory since December 2024, when it invaded southwest Syria following the ousting of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Sharaa also said his government has no intention of intervening in Lebanon, where Israeli forces are currently occupying the south of the nation and waging war on Hezbollah and the civilian population.
Israel and Syria have a long history of strife as Syria fought alongside forces from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia in the First Arab-Israeli war. Syria fought against Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967, during which time Israeli forces occupied Syria’s strategic Golan Heights. The two nations fought again during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Al-Sharaa has come a long way since the days when he was known as “al-Jolani,” and he fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq against US forces. He was captured by the US military in 2006 and imprisoned, but then released in 2011 for reasons that remain classified. The next year, in 2012, he went to Syria to lead al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.
In the 21st Century, Syria had become part of the “Shia Crescent,” a coalition of Shia-led and allied nations that formed a “land bridge” from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. The United States viewed this as a geostrategic impediment while the Israelis viewed it as an existential threat.
After creating this land bridge by overthrowing the Sunni-dominated regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and handing the central government to the supermajority Shia in 2003, the George W. Bush Administration pivoted to “The Redirection” and began backing Sunni-based insurgencies throughout the region.
The Barack Obama administration continued the policy and escalated it. Operation “Timber Sycamore” funneled billions of dollars in weapons and support to the insurgency waged against the Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad. The Al-Nusra Front, led by Al-Jolani, was on the front lines of this fight against Assad’s government.
When the Assad government collapsed, al-Jolani became the Syrian president al-Sharaa. On Sunday, he told Al Jazeera that he is working toward domestic stability, but his forces have carried out large-scale massacres of Druze and Alawites.
American and Israeli officials have long viewed Sunni jihadists as a strategic asset against Iran and Shia power. Al-Sharaa’s security deal ambitions will have to align with that agenda to gain purchase in the West.
