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
A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.
Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defence minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew U.S. criticism.
Israeli troops clashed with Jewish settlers on Wednesday while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they set up directly in front of Palestinian homes, and later withdrew from the area after failing to clear the settlers, witnesses said.
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