TNA Staff
The New Arab / December 2, 2025
The US is pressing Syria and Israel to agree a security pact that could see Israeli forces withdraw from Syrian territory occupied since the fall of Assad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday demanded the demilitarisation of southern Syria in return for a security deal with Damascus.
Netanyahu spoke a day after US President Donald Trump, whose administration has been trying to broker a non-aggression pact between the two countries, said it was very important that Israel maintained a “strong and true dialogue” with Damascus.
Syria does not formally recognise Israel, which invaded the country and occupied more territory following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024.
It captured the Syrian Golan Heights in a 1967 war and later annexed it, a move rejected as illegal by almost the entire world.
“What we expect Syria to do is, of course, to establish a demilitarised buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon and the Hermon peak,” Netanyahu said while visiting wounded soldiers in central Israel. “We hold these areas in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens, and that is what obligates us.”
He added: “With goodwill and an understanding of these principles, it is possible to reach an agreement with the Syrians, but we will stand by our principles in any case.”
Trump has backed Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, while Israel has voiced wariness over Sharaa’s past links to Islamist militancy, but has engaged in efforts to broker a deal.
Israeli forces killed 13 Syrians in the Damascus countryside last week in the latest in a series of raids on Syrian territory.
The Israeli military claimed it had targeted a Lebanese Islamist militant group there.
Netanyahu on Tuesday was visiting soldiers wounded in the clash.
