New Syria, new rules: Al-Sharaa opens door to Israel talks

In a dramatic shift that would have been unthinkable just a year ago, Syria’s new president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, is quietly laying the groundwork for a potential diplomatic thaw with Israel, a historic adversary.

While full normalization remains a distant prospect, signals coming from Damascus suggest that indirect communication is underway, and the taboo surrounding Israel in Syrian politics may be fading.

Al-Sharaa, 42, a former jihadist leader turned pragmatic statesman, rose to power in December 2024 after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Since then, he has embraced a foreign policy centered on “zero problems with neighbors,” and Israel is no exception. 

Despite repeated Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory in recent years, Al-Sharaa is reportedly exploring backchannel discussions, and has pledged to uphold the 1974 disengagement agreement governing the Golan Heights border.

A Break from the Past

Under Assad, Syria maintained a staunch anti-Israel stance, closely aligned with Iran, Hezbollah, and various Palestinian factions. But Al-Charaa, who once led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has reinvented himself as a regional stabilizer willing to balance relations across ideological divides.

In recent months, he has distanced Syria from Iran, pledged cooperation on counterterrorism, and neutralized extremist groups, steps that have drawn U.S. and European support. President Donald Trump played a pivotal role by granting Al-Sharaa a high-profile meeting in Riyadh, where the two discussed lifting U.S. sanctions and regional realignment, including potential Israeli-Syrian détente.

Trump reportedly made normalization with Israel a top demand, alongside other requirements such as dismantling chemical weapons and ejecting foreign fighters. 

While Al-Sharaa stopped short of committing to formal ties, his response was strikingly open: maintaining the Golan truce, engaging in indirect contacts, and drawing inspiration from leaders who brokered peace with Israel.

Strategic Calculations

Syria's potential rapprochement with Israel would mark a geopolitical sea change in the Middle East. Analysts argue that Al-Charaa’s pivot is driven less by ideology and more by economic imperatives and domestic fatigue with conflict.

Al-Sharaa's Saudi backers, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, see him as a key player in rolling back Iranian influence and stabilizing Syria through non-Muslim Brotherhood-aligned political Islam. Israel, however, remains skeptical, wary that these overtures might be tactical rather than genuine.

Still, the symbolic gestures—avoiding inflammatory rhetoric, honoring previous agreements, and floating backchannel diplomacy—are being closely watched in Jerusalem, Washington, and Brussels.

The most contentious issue is the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where Al-Sharaa’s father was born. 

Any movement on this front would require major political risk and domestic consensus, which remains elusive.

Meanwhile, extremist groups such as ISIS view Al-Charaa’s new orientation as betrayal and have called for renewed jihad against his government, raising the stakes further.

Yet for the first time in decades, a Syrian leader is not rejecting the idea of peace with Israel out of hand. That alone signals a potential turning point—if regional and global actors can seize the moment.