Shafaq News – Middle East
US Special Envoy Tom Barrack delineated Israel’s red lines in Syria and ensured mechanisms were in place to prevent any breach, the Jerusalem Post said on Tuesday.
Citing two Israeli sources, the newspaper indicated that during a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the officials reached mutual understandings on two pivotal issues: Israel's “continued freedom of operation” in Syria to “neutralize emerging threats,” and the progress of US-mediated talks with Syria aimed at forging a new security arrangement.
"Each side now understands what it needs to do," one source noted, while the other observed, "It was a good meeting. Israel and the US see eye-to-eye."
The meeting came after a Reuters report indicated that US-mediated talks intended to establish a new security arrangement had stalled. Sources attributed the breakdown to Israel’s request to open a “humanitarian corridor” to Syria’s southern Suwayda province.
Six rounds of meetings between Syrian and Israeli officials, facilitated by the United States, had been conducted in an effort to reach a security understanding along the border, but they yielded no tangible outcomes.
Syrian transitional President Ahmad Al-Sharaa rejected Israel’s proposal for a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, framing it as a direct threat to Syrian security. He also accused Israel of exporting its crises beyond its borders following the Gaza war, citing over 1,000 airstrikes and 400 ground incursions since December 8, 2024.
Damascus maintains that the 1974 separation-of-forces agreement should form the basis for any future discussions and insists that Israeli forces withdraw from areas occupied after December 8, 2024.
Read more: Syria's shifting stance: Is normalization with Israel on the horizon?