Israel is interested in establishing official diplomatic ties with old foes Syria and Lebanon, but will not negotiate the fate of the Golan Heights in any peace agreement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a press conference on Monday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Reuters/Christian Mang
Israel is interested in establishing official diplomatic ties with old foes Syria and Lebanon, but will not negotiate the fate of the Golan Heights in any peace agreement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a press conference on Monday.
Relations in the region were thrown into uncertainty by more than a year of fighting between Israel and Lebanon from late 2023, in parallel to the war in Gaza, and by the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 after capturing most of the area from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
In May, Reuters reported that Israel and Syria's new Islamist rulers were in direct contact and had held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region between the enemies.
U.S. President Donald Trump met Syria's president in Saudi Arabia in the same month and urged him to normalise ties with Israel, making a surprise announcement that the U.S. would lift all sanctions on the Islamist-led government.
Soon after Syria's Assad was toppled, Israeli troops moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of strategic Mount Hermon, which overlooks Damascus.
Reporting by Alexander Cornwell
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Wednesday of violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a military officer was wounded by an explosive device in Rafah and Israel vowed retaliation.
Syria's foreign and defence ministers met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss expanding military, political and economic cooperation, with a focus on strategic collaboration in defence industries, Syria's state news agency SANA reported.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the military would never fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip for security reasons and that a civilian-military army unit would be established in the Palestinian enclave.
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