Netanyahu Reveals Direct Contact with Syria's President Sharaa in 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a crowd at an election event on Thursday that he held a one-on-one conversation with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in summer 2025, allegedly to warn him not to allow the massacre of Druze people in his country.

Multiple reports indicated that Netanyahu’s statements are the first known confirmation of direct interaction between the two heads of state, although Sharaa had previously confirmed some informal attempts at improving the bilateral relationship, which has remained in a technical state of war for decades. The major point of contention between Israel and Syria under Sharaa so far has been Israel’s continued administration of the Golan Heights, which Syria claims. Israel took control of that territory during the Six-Day War in 1967. Sharaa has claimed that any full normalization of relations between the two countries would require addressing the territorial dispute.

Prior to Sharaa seizing power in December 2024, by winning the Syrian Civil War leading his al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syria was ruled for over half a century by the Assad dynasty, which maintained close ties to Iran and regularly antagonized Israel. Dictator Bashar Assad fled the country in 2024 upon HTS seizing control of Damascus, moving to Moscow, Russia, where he is believed to reside since.

Netanyahu addressed his relationship with Syria during an event addressing Druze voters in Israel in anticipation of the nation’s election at the end of the week. He pledged to take their concerns seriously and protect the Druze community from persecution, noting that Israel intervened in Syria last year following attacks on Druze villagers by Sunni Muslims Bedouins in the community of Sweida (Suwayda). He told the audience that he called Sharaa to personally demand an end to the killing of Druze in his country.

“It was a very short, very sharp conversation, and the massacre was stopped,” Netanyahu claimed. “There is still work to be done; I cannot reveal everything.”

Netanyahu reportedly explained the conversation happened after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the Syrian military headquarters in July 2025 following the call from regional Druze leaders to get involved in the conflict in their defense.

“We took down the Defense Ministry in Damascus — just like that, gone — we took down a target inside the Palace compound, and I called Sharaa,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “It was a very short and sharp conversation, and the massacre stopped. I will do whatever it takes to protect our brothers, your brothers, and our brothers; we will not allow a massacre to be committed, and they must also be returned to their homes. This commitment comes from the depths of my soul.”

The Times of Israel noted that both governments have confirmed lower-level talks in an attempt to stabilize the relationship, including confirmation in May, prior to the Druze clashes, of talks mediated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). More recently, in August, Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) revealed that Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani had engaged in peace talks with Israel mediated by Jordan. Shaibani himself stated that his government had no “trust” in Israel but was nonetheless pursuing diplomatic work to improve the relationship.

“We do not trust Israel at present. We deal with it through our interactions, but there is currently no trust,” Shaibani told Reuters at the time. “Israel has repeatedly tried to preserve its security through hard power, and it has not succeeded. The door is open, and I believe negotiations will resume soon.”

The Sharaa government has not officially confirmed or denied the comments from the Israeli prime minister this week at press time. The Kurdish outlet Rudaw cited an unnamed Syrian government “source” in its reporting on Thursday, however, who did not comment on the veracity of the phone call but insisted that Sharaa’s government “categorically rejects any attempt to politicize” the situation. The source also claimed that the Syrian government did not do more to protect Druze communities last year because Israeli intervention blocked Syrian action.

“Israeli bombardment … prevented the Syrian government from intervening to put an end to the clashes between Druze and Bedouin communities,” the source alleged, accusing Israel of “targeting civil peace in Suwayda Governorate … by arming an outlaw militia to provoke widespread chaos and fabricate a pretext to drag the country into a full-scale war.”

Clashes between Druze people and Sunni Muslim Bedouins erupted in Suwayda in July following the abduction by a Muslim gang of a Druze vegetable merchant. While the Damascus government insisted that it was responding as rapidly as possible to protect lives, Druze leaders complaining that either negligence or active support for the Islamic radicals had resulted in minimal support from the capital. A group of Druze leaders issued a statement at the time holding the Sharaa government “primarily responsible” for the killings; some accused government actors of helping arm and encourage the Muslim attacks.

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