Reports on the progress of the security talks between Israel and Syria continue to be heavily conflicting. Last week, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa seemed optimistic about the possibility that a deal could be reached in a matter of days. In comments late Tuesday, he said the talks had reached an advanced stage but that the Israeli side seemed to be stalling on further progress.
Israel was said to be pushing a “maximalist” position whereby they would keep some of the territory seized in their December invasion, Syria’s ability to position military in the southwest of their country would be seriously curtailed, and they would need to impose a Syria-only no-fly zone in that area, while granting Israel an air corridor for attacking Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the idea of withdrawing troops from the Syrian demilitarized zone was “a joke.”
In further comments made at the Middle East Institute, Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda leader, dismissed the idea of Syria posing any threat to Israel, saying, “We are not the ones creating problems for Israel. We are scared of Israel, not the other way around.”
At the UN General Assembly, Sharaa faulted Israeli strikes as contradicting the international position on supporting Syria. He further said Syria remains committed to the 1974 disengagement of forces agreement.
Israel has repeatedly suggested Sharaa’s Islamist government poses a threat, though Sharaa’s faction, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was courting Israel as an ally before they seized power, even though that seizure was immediately followed by an Israeli invasion.
Initially seizing parts of the demilitarized zone, Israel has moved deeper and deeper, and is now regularly moving into towns and villages in Quneitra and Daraa Governorates. Today, Israeli military vehicles moved into the village of Saida al-Golan, and established a military checkpoint near Samadaniyah.
Though Israel isn’t actively occupying most of the Syrian towns and villages in the area, it raids them intermittently, searches homes seemingly arbitrarily, and detains civilians on unclear pretexts. Israeli reconnaissance planes have also been reported flying over Quneitra.
The US has been pushing progress on the peace talks, and US envoy Tom Barrack claimed the sides are close to signing a deal. Between Israel suggesting last week that the talks had stalled and Sharaa now accusing Israel of stalling, that may be overly optimistic.