BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s foreign minister held a rare meeting with an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday, the Syrian state-run news agency reported. The talks were brokered by the United States, which has been pushing for Syria and Israel to normalize relations, the report said.
The SANA news agency said Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani met with Israeli officials to discuss de-escalating tensions and restoring a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Syrian officials have acknowledged holding indirect talks with Israel to defuse tensions. There was no immediate confirmation of such a meeting from Israel.
Tensions have soared between the two neighboring countries following the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad in December. Israeli forces seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in Syria shortly after Assad’s overthrow and carried out airstrikes on military sites in what officials said was aimed at creating a demilitarized zone south of Damascus.
Israel has said it will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves along the frontier, as Iranian-backed groups did during Assad’s rule. It distrusts Syria’s new government, which is led by former Islamist insurgents.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaida commander who severed ties with the militant group years ago, has pledged to build a new country that respects the rights of minorities, but sectarian violence has erupted on a number of occasions, raising concerns about the country’s fragile transition.
Israel stepped up its intervention when violence erupted in Syria’s Sweida province last month between Bedouin clans and government forces on one side and armed groups from the Druze religious minority on the other.
The conflict then prompted airstrikes against Syrian forces by Israel in defense of the Druze before a truce — mediated by the U.S., Turkey and Arab countries — halted most of the fighting.
Israel said it was acting to protect t he Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority in Israel and often serve in the military. Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of Syrian forces around Sweida and struck the headquarters of the Syrian Ministry of Defense in the heart of Damascus, Syria’s capital.
Israels seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the strategic plateau in a move that has only been recognized by the United States. The rest of the international community views the Golan as occupied Syrian territory.
