Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of violating a decades-old disengagement agreement and expanding its military presence in Syria, including bombing key government sites, in an interview published Tuesday by the Washington Post.
“Syria got into war with Israel 50 years ago. Then, in 1974, there was a disengagement agreement,” al-Sharaa said, speaking to the newspaper after his landmark visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump. “This agreement lasted for 50 years. But when the [Assad] regime fell, Israel revoked this agreement. They expanded their presence in Syria, expelled the UN [peacekeeping] mission and occupied new territory.”
According to al-Sharaa, Israel has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes in Syria since December 8, the date on which his rebel organization, Nusra Front, toppled Assad, including attacks on the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense. “But because we want to rebuild Syria, we didn’t respond to these aggressions,” he said.
Al-Sharaa dismissed Israel’s stated security concerns for the strikes in Syria, claiming they are driven by “expansionist ambitions.” He added, “Israel has always claimed that it has concerns about Syria because it is afraid of the threats that the Iranian militias and [Lebanon’s] Hezbollah represent. We are the ones who expelled those forces out of Syria.”
He revealed that Syria is engaged in direct negotiations with Israel, with support from the United States and other international actors.
“We have gone a good distance on the way to reach an agreement. But to reach a final agreement, Israel should withdraw to their pre-Dec. 8 borders,” al-Sharaa told the Washington Post. “Today, we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”
Asked whether Syria would agree to demilitarize the region south of Damascus, al-Sharaa rejected the idea. “To talk about an entire region demilitarized, it will be difficult, because if there is any kind of chaos, who will protect it? If this demilitarized zone was used by some parties as a launching pad for hitting Israel, who is going to be responsible for that?”
He added, “At the end of the day, this is Syrian territory, and Syria should have the freedom of dealing with their own territory.”
In a separate interview with Fox News, which aired on Monday, al-Sharaa was asked about the possibility of Syria joining the Abraham Accords and was cautious.
He would not acknowledge whether Syria would agree to recognize Israel’s right to exist and would only say, “Syria has borders with Israel, and Israel occupies the Golan Heights since 1967. We are not going to enter into a negotiation directly right now. Maybe the United States administration, with President Trump, will help us reach this kind of negotiation.”
In September, al-Sharaa told reporters in Damascus that ongoing negotiations with Israel on a security pact could lead to results "in the coming days"
At the time, he stated that if the security pact is successful, it could lead to “additional agreements”, but also clarified that a normalization or peace deal with Israel are not on the table at this time.