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Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the United States to mediate in talks with Syria’s Interim Government, Axios reported on June 11.
Netanyahu made the request to Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s Syria envoy and ambassador to Turkey, when he was in Israel last week, according to the report, which said that the primer indicated that he wants to negotiate a new security deal as a step toward a peace agreement.
The deal would update the 1974 disengagement agreement between the countries, and would start the process of full peace.
“We want to try and move towards normalization with Syria as soon as possible,” Axios quoted a senior Israeli official as saying.
Israel showed great suspicion towards Syria’s new ruler, invading the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights and destroying much of the country’s military capabilities right after the fall of the Assad regime last December.
In May, Israel escalated even further, openly threatening Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and launching strikes right next to his palace in Damascus.
Still, Israel engaged the Syrian government indirectly, two Israeli officials told Axios, adding that the two sides then moved to direct covert meetings in third countries.
“It is better for us that the Syrian government is close to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia” than Turkey, a senior Israeli official tells the news website.
Israeli officials told Barrack that their red lines in Syria are no Turkish bases, no Iranian or Hezbollah presence and demilitarization of southern Syria. Israel also wants U.S. forces in the United Nation force overseeing disengagement agreement, according to Axios.
The website added that Israeli officials believe the Sharaa might be open to an agreement that does not include a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.
During Trump’s first term, the U.S. recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied by in 1967 then annexed in 1981.
The Syrian government has from the outset indicated that it seeks calm and even eventual peace with Israel, without making any demands with regards to the Golan Heights.
All in all, Sharaa was never apparently Israel’s problem when it comes to Syria. In fact, Netanyahu hinted more than once that Israel played a role in the fall of the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad, meaning they opened the road towards Damascus for Sharaa.
Israel’s real problem in Syria is Turkey’s ambition to turn the country into a satellite state, with a strategic partnership including a defense pact. Recent reports revealed plans by Ankara to establish ground, naval and air bases in Syria, bringing the Turkish military closer than ever to the border of Israel.
Netanyahu on June 11 took a clear shot at Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declaring, “The Ottoman Empire will not be revived any time soon.” These remarks, delivered during an official Knesset address, were widely interpreted as a rebuke of Ankara’s neo-Ottoman ambitions.
Over the past year or so, Israel succeeded in weakening the influence of Iran, from the Gaza Strip, to Lebanon, and Syria. Now, Netanyahu apparently sees Turkey and its influence as the next big threat facing Israel. A confrontation may be inevitable, but it would be a mistake of Turkey to rely too much on Syria as its new rulers have shown in the past that they are more than willing to make drastic shifts to stay in power.
Sharaa’s next big move may be to step away from his key ally, Turkey, in favor of a safer partnership with the U.S, Saudi Arabia and even Israel. It is not completely unrealistic to speculate that Turkey could end up the biggest loser from the fall of the Assad regime.
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