Syrian foreign minister held meeting with Israeli officials in Paris

Asaad al-Shaibani, Syria’s foreign minister, participated in a US-mediated meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday, according to Syria’s state news agency Sana. 

Syria and Israel have held US-mediated talks in recent months, though it has rarely been acknowledged in Syrian state media. 

The most recent discussions focused on de-escalation in southern Syria and non-interference in Syrian domestic affairs, Sana reported. 

“These talks are taking place under US mediation, as part of diplomatic efforts aimed at enhancing security and stability in Syria and preserving the unity and integrity of its territory,” Sana reported.

The two sides discussed re-activating the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, which created a UN buffer zone in Syria’s Golan Heights, an area that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. 

When Bashar al-Assad’s government fell in December, Israel occupied the buffer zone and declared that the 1974 agreement was null and void. 

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials about the talks on Tuesday. 

Earlier this week, Israeli media reported that Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister, was set to attend the meeting, alongside Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria. 

It was the second such meeting to take place between the two countries in Paris in less than a month, Reuters reported. 

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Dermer and Shaibani also met in Azerbaijan a few weeks ago. The talks last month centred around the situation in the southern region of Sweida. 

Violence in Sweida erupted on 13 July between Bedouin fighters, Druze factions and government forces, killing over 1,500 people. 

Israel also carried out strikes on Syrian cities, including the capital Damascus, framing its attacks as an effort to protect the Druze minority.

A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, while the Syrian government said it had set up a committee to investigate the violence.

Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria has been rocked by waves of sectarian violence which new President Ahmed al-Sharaa has struggled to manage.

In March, attacks by Assad loyalists in the coastal province of Latakia provoked a violent sectarian backlash against the Alawi population, which the former president and his family were members of.

At least 1,500 Alawis were killed in the subsequent violence, with a Reuters investigation tracing much of it back to officials in Damascus.