Shafaq News – Damascus / Washington
On Thursday, the Syrian government denied reports that the United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus.
Reuters had reported that Washington intended to deploy personnel at a Damascus-area airbase as part of a proposed US-brokered non-aggression pact between Syria and Israel.
A Foreign Ministry source, cited by SANA, dismissed Reuters' allegations as “false,” claiming that Washington is now engaging directly with the Syrian government and supporting efforts to “unify the country.”
US coordination with unspecified “temporary entities”—believed to include the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—is being shifted to Damascus under joint political, military, and economic frameworks, the source clarified.
The reports and Damascus’s denial come ahead of transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s anticipated visit to Washington on November 10, the first by a Syrian head of state since the country’s independence in 1946.
Read more: Syria's shifting stance: Is normalization with Israel on the horizon?