Syria President says his country seeks security deal with Israel

• Syria aims to reach a security deal with Israel to pave the way for peace without giving up its claim to the Golan Heights, seeking international support to pressure Israel.
• Israeli forces have expanded their presence and conducted strikes in Syria since late 2024, including shelling and power outages in Syrian villages, escalating tensions.
• UN Secretary-General Guterres urged respect for Syria's sovereignty and called for an end to Israeli violations, while Syria’s president works to restore international relations and avoid military actions in Lebanon.

Syria is seeking to reach a security agreement with Israel, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview with Al Jazeera on July 26.

He said a deal could pave the way for comprehensive peace between the two countries without compromising Syria’s right to the Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981.

Sharaa said Syria was trying to involve a large group of countries to pressure Israel to adopt a more balanced policy towards Syria.

“We are avoiding getting into confrontations,” he said.

Soon after former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fell to rebel forces advancing under Sharaa’s leadership in December 2024, Israeli troops pushed into Syria and seized strategic territories. The troops moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, which overlooks the capital Damascus.

Since then, the Israeli military has launched strikes in Syria and detained individuals from within the country. Israel has also intervened in what it calls missions to protect the ethnic minority Druze in south-western Syria.

On July 26, Israeli forces shelled areas in Syria and destroyed an electrical transformer in the village of Maariyah, depriving homes of power, according to the official SANA news agency.

Sharaa’s comments coincided with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visiting Syria, the first trip by a UN chief to the country since 2009.

In a statement on social media platform X on July 26, Guterres called for respect for Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.

“Violations by Israel of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement are unacceptable and must stop,” he said.

In 2025, Sharaa, who is trying to rehabilitate Syria’s image, became the first Syrian president since 1967 to take part in the UN General Assembly in New York.

His government is seeking to rebuild international ties and the local economy after nearly 14 years of war and decades of isolation and death under the Assad family’s rule.

Sharaa also said his government was “not considering military interventions” in Lebanon. The Iran-backed Shi’ite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Sharaa fought on opposing sides during the Syrian civil war.

Earlier in 2026, US President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Sharaa about combating Hezbollah, after criticising Israel for killing too many civilians in Lebanon. REUTERS