Reuters: The Security Agreement Between Syria and Israel Stumbles at the Last Moment

SadaNews - Reuters quoted four unnamed sources that efforts to reach a security agreement between Syria and Israel stumbled at the last moment due to Israel's demand for permission to open a "humanitarian corridor" to the Sweida province in southern Syria.

In recent weeks, Syria and Israel came close to agreeing on the outlines of the agreement after months of talks in Baku, Paris, and London, mediated by the United States, with the pace accelerating ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

According to previous leaks, the agreement aimed to establish a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, including the Sweida province, which has a Druze majority, where violence in July resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Syrian government forces and Bedouins after clashes with Druze fighters, with Israel launching strikes in Syria to support them on the ground.

Israel, which has a Druze minority of 120,000 who serve in the military, stated that it would protect the community and has launched military attacks in Syria under the pretext of defending the Druze, while Damascus and observers see this pretext as a way to find a justification for intervention in Syria.

According to the same leaks, Israel demands the opening of what it describes as a "humanitarian corridor" connecting it to the Syrian Sweida, despite the lack of geographic communication between them and the presence of two Syrian provinces—Daraa and Quneitra—that separate Sweida from occupied Palestine. However, Syria rejected the request as a violation of its sovereignty.

Two Israeli officials, a Syrian source, and a source in Washington familiar with the talks stated that Israel reintroduced the request at a late stage of the discussions.

The Syrian source and the Washington source noted that the renewed Israeli request delayed plans to announce an agreement this week. No previous reports mentioned the new point of contention.

The U.S. State Department and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court—and the Syrian Foreign Ministry did not respond to Reuters' inquiries regarding the outlines of the agreement or the contentious points.

Last week, the Syrian Foreign Ministry announced that Damascus is working with Washington to reach security understandings with Israel regarding southern Syria, within a roadmap adopted by Syria with support from the United States and Jordan to resolve the crisis in Sweida province and stabilize southern Syria.

A Syrian Proposal

Reuters also reported last week, citing nine sources familiar with the talks between Syria and Israel, that the Syrian proposal for the security agreement aims to withdraw the Israeli army from the territories it has occupied in recent months, restore the agreed-upon buffer zone under the 1974 disengagement agreement as it was demilitarized, and halt Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions into Syria.

The sources indicated that the talks did not address the status of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 war. A Syrian source familiar with Damascus's position stated that this issue would be left "for the future."

After Israeli incursions within the demilitarized zone for months, Israel abandoned the 1974 agreement on December 8, 2024, the day on which rebels overthrew the ousted president Bashar al-Assad. Israel targeted Syrian military sites and vehicles and positioned its forces 20 kilometers from Damascus.

The sources added that Israel has shown hesitation during closed-door talks in relinquishing these gains.

Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, Israeli forces have invaded the buffer zone in the Golan and occupied more Syrian territory, as well as conducting hundreds of air strikes on military sites throughout Syria.

Damascus condemned the Israeli assaults on Syria and the repeated incursions into Quneitra, Daraa, and the Damascus countryside, asserting that they hinder efforts to achieve stability and represent a violation of international law and the 1974 disengagement agreement.