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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria and Israel had reached nearly 90% agreement in negotiations on a security framework before Israel withdrew or added further conditions, according to the Atlantic Council.
“There were several sessions of negotiations with Israel, and we almost reached 90% of agreements,” Sharaa said Tuesday during an Atlantic Council panel in New York. He said Israel subsequently pulled out of the agreement for “different reasons.”
Talks focused on security arrangements
Sharaa accused Israel of continuing attacks, incursions, arrests and bombings in Syria since the fall of the former regime, saying it had also occupied additional territory.
“Syria still chose to go through diplomacy and to solve that problem through talk and negotiations,” he said. “We are still engaging in this track, but we need to protect the security and the rights of the Syrians. Before that, we can’t talk about peace.”
According to Sharaa, direct talks began about a year ago. Damascus initially demanded that Israel withdraw to the lines it held in 1974 before discussions on security arrangements could proceed.
“If those arrangements succeeded, then we can get into discussions about lasting peace,” he said.
Sharaa said the Golan Heights was Syrian territory recognised by the United Nations and that its ownership was not open to discussion. He also proposed creating an international committee to assess Israel’s security concerns and distinguish genuine concerns from perceived threats.
Sharaa rejects connection to 9/11 attacks
Asked about the Trump administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Sharaa recalled a joke he said he had made to US President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House.
“Why don’t you give New Jersey to the Israelis? You don’t own the Golan Heights to give it to them, but you own New Jersey,” Sharaa said he had told Trump.
Sharaa visited the White House last November, becoming the first Syrian head of state to do so since Syria gained independence in 1946. He had previously met Trump in Riyadh in May 2025, shortly before Washington lifted Caesar sanctions.
Asked about the foreign military presence in Syria, Sharaa said Russia’s bases had been reduced from about 170 to two, which had been converted into training bases for the Syrian army. He added that Türkiye’s bases in northwestern Syria were moving towards “a legal status” with the endorsement of the People’s Assembly.
Brett McGurk, a former US President Joe Biden’s Middle East coordinator, asked Sharaa about the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “I had nothing to do with that. At the time, I was 13 years old,” Sharaa replied.
He said he was sorry for the victims in the United States and for those who had died in the Middle East as a result of policies that had harmed many people. “We are completely disengaged from what happened then,” he said.
