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
Lebanese Christian leader Samir Geagea delivered a verdict Tuesday that many Lebanese have long wanted to hear but few dared to say out loud: Hezbollah is "finished" in Lebanon, and Iran, not the Lebanese state, will foot the bill for the destruction it caused.
A long-delayed economic initiative between Israel and Jordan is gaining renewed momentum, as both governments move to advance the “Jordan Gateway” project despite ongoing regional tensions.
Lebanon has taken the extraordinary step of declaring Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani persona non grata, ordering him to leave Lebanese territory by Sunday at the latest, in a move that marks one of the most significant diplomatic ruptures in the two countries' modern history.
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