US President Donald Trump on Monday called on the Israeli government to refrain from “interfering” in Syria’s progress toward transforming it into a “prosperous country,” and called on the Israeli authorities to maintain a “genuine” dialogue with their Syrian counterpart. The Republican’s message, which was published on Truth, his social network, comes at a time when already tense relations between the two countries are deteriorating. On Friday, Israeli forces launched one of the bloodiest attacks against their northeastern neighbor since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government last December, and this Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu’s second-line minister spoke publicly about the possibility of going to war in Syria.
The statement by Trump, who made a phone call on Monday with Netanyahu in which he invited him to the White House for the fifth time this year, appears to be an attempt to push Israel and Syria to resume negotiations to reach a security agreement. Months ago, the US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, confirmed that an agreement was imminent. But the actions of Israeli forces – which have been launching repeated raids in Syrian territory they have occupied since December – and the demands that Israel is adding to the negotiating table have made expectations of reaching an agreement with the new Syrian authorities less likely.
In parallel, military action gained the importance that diplomacy had lost. On Friday, an Israeli raid on the Syrian town of Beit Jinn on the outskirts of Damascus led to an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and local youths. Six Israeli soldiers were injured and 13 Syrians were killed – two of them minors – after Israeli forces bombed the municipality. Trump’s warning also comes after some sectors in Israel interpreted these events as a prelude to a new war front.
Trump asked: “It is important that Israel maintains a real and strong dialogue with Syria, and that nothing hinders Syria’s development towards (becoming) a prosperous country.” In the post, the US President indicated that the White House had ordered the lifting of sanctions on Syria, and called on the two countries to take advantage of a “historic opportunity” that adds “to the success already achieved for peace in the Middle East,” in a clear reference to the fragile truce in Gaza.
When Syria’s current interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, completed the offensive in December last year against Assad’s government, Israeli authorities took advantage of the chaos to occupy all the territory that was part of the buffer zone that Israel and Damascus had agreed to in a security agreement reached in 1974, and which Israeli executive power ended with the fall of the Syrian dictator. This new occupation of an area larger than the Gaza Strip adds to the area that Israel has already controlled since 1967 in the Syrian Golan Heights, where tens of thousands of Israeli settlers reside.
“new era”
Since December, Washington has been mediating negotiations between the Israelis and Syrians to design a security agreement to replace the previous agreement, in talks in which the fate and status of the recently occupied villages – where some 70,000 Syrians reside – are at stake.
This dialogue is being held while Israeli forces are operating militarily in Syria in the face of the inaction of the Syrian authorities, with no desire to start a conflict with Israel at a time when it has to build a state. Since December, the Israeli Air Force has systematically bombed Syrian army equipment and military bases – in some cases reducing them to dust – saying it must prevent them falling into the wrong hands and posing a threat to Israelis living in the Golan Heights.
Amigay Shekli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora and Combating Anti-Semitism, on Sunday denounced the “organized resistance” faced by Israeli forces in Beit Jinn. The minister, who has no powers in matters of war but whose words could be interpreted as a measure of Israeli executive authority, described these events as “the beginning of a new era,” and equated Gaza in 2008 with Syria in 2025. “It is necessary to understand that it is very likely that the Syrian front will become a major war zone,” Shikli added.