Syrian minister holds rare meeting with Israeli officials in Paris – reports

Foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani met the Israeli delegation to discuss de-escalating tensions (Shamil Zhumatov/ Pool Photo via AP)

Syria’s foreign minister has held a rare meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris, the Syrian state-run news agency said.

The talks were brokered by the United States, which has been pushing for Syria and Israel to normalise relations, the report said.

Foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani met Israeli officials on Tuesday to discuss de-escalating tensions and restoring a 1974 ceasefire agreement, the SANA news agency said.

Syrian officials have acknowledged holding indirect talks with Israel to defuse tensions. There was no immediate confirmation of such a meeting from Israel.

Tensions have soared between the two neighbouring countries following the overthrow of Syrian president Bashar Assad in December.

Israeli forces seized control of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria shortly after Mr Assad’s overthrow and carried out airstrikes on military sites in what officials said was aimed at creating a demilitarised zone south of Damascus.

Israel has said it will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves along the frontier, as Iranian-backed groups did during Mr Assad’s rule. It distrusts Syria’s new government, which is led by former Islamist insurgents.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaida commander who severed ties with the militant group years ago, has pledged to build a new country that respects the rights of minorities, but sectarian violence has erupted on a number of occasions, raising concerns about the country’s fragile transition.

Israel stepped up its intervention when violence erupted in Syria’s Sweida province last month between Bedouin clans and government forces on one side and armed groups from the Druze religious minority on the other.

Israel said it was acting to protect the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority in Israel and often serve in the military. Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of Syrian forces around Sweida and struck the headquarters of the Syrian ministry of defence in the heart of Damascus, Syria’s capital.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed the strategic plateau in a move that has only been recognised by the US. The rest of the international community views the Golan as occupied Syrian territory.