Syria

Fourteen members of the UN Security Council voted in favour of the US-drafted resolution. China abstained.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to remove sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Interior Minister Anas Khattab following a resolution championed by the United States.

In a largely symbolic move, the UNSC delisted the Syrian government officials from the ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda sanctions list, in a resolution approved by 14 council members on Thursday. China abstained.

The formal lifting of sanctions on al-Sharaa is largely symbolic, as they were waived every time he needed to travel outside of Syria in his role as the country’s leader. An assets freeze and arms embargo will also be lifted.

Al-Sharaa led opposition fighters who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December. His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began an offensive on November 27, 2024, reaching Damascus in only 12 days, resulting in the end of the al-Assad family’s 53-year reign.

The collapse of the al-Assad family’s rule has been described as a historic moment – nearly 14 years after Syrians rose in peaceful protests against a government that met them with violence that quickly spiralled into a bloody civil war.

HTS had been on the UNSC’s ISIL and al-Qaeda sanctions list since May 2014.

Since coming to power, al-Sharaa has called on the US to formally lift sanctions on his country, saying the sanctions imposed on the previous Syrian leadership were no longer justified.

US President Donald Trump met the Syrian president in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in May and ordered most sanctions lifted. However, the most stringent sanctions were imposed by Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in 2019 and will require a congressional vote to remove them permanently.

In a bipartisan statement, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee welcomed the UN action Thursday and said it was now Congress’s turn to act to “bring the Syrian economy into the 21st century”.

We “are actively working with the administration and our colleagues in Congress to repeal Caesar sanctions”, Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement ahead of the vote. “It’s time to prioritize reconstruction, stability, and a path forward rather than isolation that only deepens hardship for Syrians.”

Al-Sharaa plans to meet with Trump in Washington next week, the first visit by a Syrian president to Washington since the country gained independence in 1946.

While Israel and Syria remain formally in a state of war, with Israel still occupying Syria’s Golan Heights, Trump has expressed hope that the two countries can normalise relations.

Israel has conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad overthrow.

Israel’s army has renewed its incursions into Syria, setting up a checkpoint in the southern province of Quneitra, according to local media, as it continues daily attacks, destabilises its neighbours and occupies and assaults Palestine.

State news agency SANA reported that two tanks and four military vehicles entered the town of Jabata al-Khashab in the Quneitra countryside on Wednesday, setting up the military post on the road leading to the village of Ain al-Bayda.

Damascus did not immediately comment but has repeatedly condemned Israel’s repeated violations of its sovereignty, highlighting Israel’s failure to adhere to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that followed the 1973 war.

In that war, Syria was unable to retake the occupied Golan Heights. The 1974 agreement saw the establishment of a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone, which Israel has violated since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December

Israel has previously said the 1974 agreement is void since al-Assad fled, breaching Syrian sovereignty with air strikes, ground infiltration operations, reconnaissance overflights, the establishment of checkpoints and the arrests and disappearances of Syrians. Syria has not reciprocated attacks.

Back in September, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that Israel had conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad was overthrown, describing the actions as “very dangerous”.

Numerous villages in Quneitra, southern Syria, have experienced Israeli incursions, according to Syrian outlet Enab Baladi.

De-escalation discussions

Syria and Israel are currently in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israel’s air strikes on its territory and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.

In the background, the United States has been pushing diplomatic efforts to restore the 1974 deal. On Saturday, Trump’s special envoy Tom Barrack said the two countries are expected to hold a fifth set of de-escalation discussions.

Amid Israel’s continued belligerence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of his vision for a “Greater Israel“, al-Sharaa has been forging closer ties with the US.

On Monday, he is heading to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump, marking the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House in more than 80 years.

Barrack said on Saturday that Syria is expected to join the US-led anti–ISIL (ISIS) coalition, describing it as “a big step” and “remarkable”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said earlier this week that al-Sharaa was also expected to discuss Syria’s reconstruction with Trump.

Al-Sharaa’s trip, planned for November 10, will be first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House.

United States President Donald Trump will host Syria’s interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, for talks on November 10, according to Washington’s envoy to Damascus, in what would mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the US capital.

Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, told the Axios newspaper on Saturday that al-Sharaa is expected to sign an agreement to join an international US-led alliance against the ISIL (ISIS) group during his visit.

The Reuters news agency also cited a Syrian source familiar with the matter as saying that the trip was expected to take place within the next two weeks.

According to the US State Department’s historical list of foreign leader visits, no previous Syrian president has paid an official visit to Washington.

Al-Sharaa, who seized power from Bashar al-Assad last December, has been seeking to re-establish Syria’s ties with world powers that had shunned Damascus during al-Assad’s rule.

He met with Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, in what was the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.

The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump’s get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, was seen as a major turn of events for a Syria that is still adjusting to life after the more than 50-year rule of the Assad family.

Al-Sharaa also addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that Washington was aiming to recruit Damascus to join the coalition the US has led since 2014 to fight against ISIL, the armed group that controlled about a third of Syria and Iraq at its peak, between 2014 and 2017.

“We are trying to get everybody to be a partner in this alliance, which is huge for them,” Barrack said.

Al-Sharaa once led Syria’s offshoot of al-Qaeda, but a decade ago, his anti-Assad rebel group broke away from the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and later clashed with ISIL.

Al-Sharaa once had a $10m US reward on his head.

Al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, had joined fighters battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by US troops there for several years.

The US-led coalition and its local partners drove ISIL from its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.

Al-Sharaa’s planned visit to Washington comes as Trump is urging Middle East allies to seize the moment to build a durable peace in the volatile region after Israel and Hamas earlier this month began implementing a ceasefire and captives’ deal. That agreement aims to bring about a permanent end to Israel’s brutal two-year war in Gaza.

The fragile ceasefire and captive release deal continues to hold, but the situation remains precarious.

Israeli strikes in Gaza earlier this week killed 104 people, including dozens of women and children, the enclave’s health authorities said. The strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire began on October 10, marked the most serious challenge to the tenuous truce to date.

Meanwhile, Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli air strikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.

Barrack told the Manama Dialogue earlier that Syria and Israel continued to hold de-escalation talks, which the US has been mediating.

He told reporters that Syria and Israel were close to reaching an agreement, but declined to say when exactly a deal could be reached.

Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades.

Despite the overthrow of al-Assad last December, territorial disputes and deep-seated political mistrust between the two countries remain.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 10 (UPI) — Lebanon and Syria announced Friday the opening of a new chapter in their relations nearly 10 months after the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

This marks an attempt to move away from decades of tense ties, characterized by political domination and military interference, toward building a strong political and economic partnership.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, the first high-ranking Syrian official to visit Lebanon since Assad was overthrown by rebel insurgents in December, said a historic, political and economic opportunity exists to transform the Lebanese-Syrian relationship from “a tense, security-based one into a strong political and economic partnership” that benefits both countries.

“We look forward to turning the page on the past because we want to build the future,” al-Shibani said, reaffirming his country’s respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty and its commitment to establishing strong bilateral relations.

Earlier Friday, Syria told Lebanon it decided to suspend the work of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council and limit all forms of correspondence between the two countries to official diplomatic channels.

The council was established in 1991, after Syria — under the late President Hafez Assad — imposed itself as the main power broker in Lebanon, having been granted a guardianship role after the civil war ended a year earlier.

Lebanon has suffered from a decades-long Syrian military presence — which began in 1976, shortly after the outbreak of the civil strife — along with political domination and manipulation that deeply affected its governance, political life, economy and overall stability.

Syria also was accused of being behind the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and numerous other such killings during the civil war and in peace time. Its influence over Lebanon began to wane rapidly following the withdrawal of its troops in 2005 and the outbreak of anti-Assad peaceful protests in 2011, which soon escalated into a bloody civil war.

Syrians, for their part, harbor grudges against Hezbollah — and its patron, Iran –for siding with the Assad regime and joining the brutal battles against opposition fighters starting in 2012. The involvement of Hezbollah and Iran in Syria ended with Assad’s fall.

“Our peoples have suffered from wars and tragedies; let us try peace,” al-Shibani said after talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, calling for strengthened cooperation in all fields so that Lebanon can benefit from the lifting of international sanctions on Syria.

Aoun, who called for the appointment of a new Syrian ambassador to Lebanon — a post vacant since the fall of Assad — said that deepening and developing bilateral relations requires the formation of joint committees to address all outstanding issues.

Both countries have undergone major changes and are working to resolve several complex issues, including the case of over 2,000 Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons, the fate of numerous Lebanese prisoners or missing persons in Syria, the return of 1.5 million Syrian refugees from Lebanon to their homeland, the demarcation of land and maritime borders, and joint efforts to combat drug trafficking and terrorism.

“We have a long road ahead of us. …. We have no choice but to agree on what serves these mutual interests,” Aoun said, noting that the situation along the Lebanese-Syrian border has improved.

Al Shibani, accompanied by Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais, the head of Syrian intelligence, Hussein al-Salama; and the assistant interior minister, Maj. Gen. Abdel Qader Tahan, said all these issues were “certainly top priorities” and that committees from both countries are reviewing them.

The Syrian foreign minister, who also met with his Lebanese counterpart, Joe Rajji, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, emphasized the importance of enhancing security and intelligence coordination, as well as forming technical and economic committees across the public and private sectors to support Syria’s post-war reconstruction.

“Syria is undergoing a phase of recovery and reconstruction, which should positively reflect on Lebanon,” al-Shibani said.

Rajji praised Syria’s new leadership for respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty and refraining from interference in its internal affairs, adding, “We will work together to open a new path based on peace, security, economic cooperation and joint development.”

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, who attended the meeting between al-Shibani and Salam, said both countries demonstrated “political will” to address every issue “without taboos.”

“We have opened a new chapter in Lebanese-Syrian relations unlike any seen in the past fifty years,” Mitri said in an official statement released after the meeting.

Oct. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. military has killed a senior member of an Al-Qaida-affiliated terrroist group in Syria, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

Muhammad Abd-al-Wahhab al-Ahmad was killed Thursday in a U.S. CENTCOM airstrike, the exact location in Syria was not made public.

“U.S. forces in the Middle East remain postured to disrupt and defeat efforts by terrorists to plan, organize and conduct attacks,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement.

“We will continue to defend our homeland, warfighters, allies and partners throughout the region.”

CENTCOM identified al-Ahmad as an “attack planner” with Ansar al-Islam, a military group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in March 2004.

According to the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Ansar al-Islam, meaning Supporters of Islam, is a militant Islamic Kurdish separatist movement that seeks to reshape Iraq as an Islamic state and was reportedly formed in 2001 with support from al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

The air strike comes a little under two months since CENTCOM forces killed a senior ISIS member and key financier in a northern Syria raid on Aug. 19.

In late February, CENTCOM forces killed a senior military leader of the Al-Qaida-affiliated Hurras al-Din terrorist group in an airstrike in northwest Syria.

A landmark deal to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with state institutions has stalled as both sides accuse each other of violence.

Syria’s government has declared a ceasefire between its security forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, after at least one person was killed and four people were injured in overnight violence.

Murhaf Abu Qasra, Syria’s minister of defence, announced the ceasefire on Tuesday after meeting with Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying the two sides had “agreed on a comprehensive ceasefire across all fronts and military positions in northern and northeastern Syria”.

“The implementation of this agreement will begin immediately,” the government minister added.

The Syrian army and the United States-backed SDF clashed after SDF fighters reportedly targeted checkpoints in the city, according to the state-run news agency SANA.

SDF forces allegedly fired into residential areas in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo “with mortar shells and heavy machine guns”, SANA reported, adding there were civilian casualties.

Residents of the area told The Associated Press that two security guards in a public park were killed on Tuesday by shelling, and a woman and a child were wounded.

The SDF denied attacking the checkpoints and said its forces withdrew from the area months ago. It blamed the outbreak of violence on aggression by government forces.

It also issued a statement on Tuesday accusing government military factions of carrying out “repeated attacks” against civilians in the Aleppo neighbourhoods and imposing a siege on them.

The violence was the latest flare-up in tensions between the interim government and the SDF, which has sought to retain de facto autonomy in the northeast part of the country.

It was also another setback for the landmark deal struck in March by President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Abdi.

The agreement, brokered after the fall of ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December, was designed to integrate Kurdish-led forces into Syria’s state institutions.

It also would have seen key assets held by the SDF — including border crossings, an airport, and oil-and-gas fields — handed to Damascus by the end of the year. The SDF is estimated to control about a quarter of Syria’s land, mostly in the northeast part of the country.

The government in Damascus has hoped to consolidate its control over the country. But progress on the March plan has stalled.

Both Damascus and the SDF have accused each other of provocations that have increased tensions.

On Tuesday, the presidential office issued a statement that al-Sharaa had spoken to US envoy Tom Barrack to discuss how the plan might be implemented “in a manner that safeguards Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

They also discussed “ways to support the political process”, according to the statement.

On Monday, Syria published the results of its first parliamentary election since al-Assad was toppled, a landmark moment in the country’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of civil war.

Most new members of the revamped People’s Assembly are Sunni Muslim and male. Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told a news conference on Monday that only four percent of the 119 members selected in the indirect vote were women and only two Christians were among the winners, sparking concerns about inclusivity and fairness.

Election marks landmark moment in country’s post-war transition, but vote is postponed in Druze and Kurdish areas.

Syria has published the results of its first parliamentary election since the government of former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled, revealing that most new members of the revamped People’s Assembly are Sunni Muslim and male.

Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told a press conference on Monday that only four percent of the 119 members selected in the indirect vote were women and only two Christians were among the winners, sparking concerns about inclusivity and fairness.

The election represents a landmark moment in the country’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of war, but critics say it favours well-connected figures and is likely to keep power concentrated in the hands of Syria’s new rulers, rather than paving the way for genuine democratic change.

News agency AFP cited Najmeh as saying that the number of women in the parliament was “not proportionate to the status of women in Syrian society and their role in political, economic and social life”.

He called the representation of Christians “weak, considering the proportion of Christians in Syria”.

The authorities resorted to an indirect voting system rather than universal suffrage, alluding to a lack of reliable population data following the war, which killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions.

Sunni Muslims make up an estimated 75 percent of Syrians. The former al-Assad regime, which was overthrown in December after a nearly 14-year civil war, was largely headed by Syrians from the Alawite minority.

Sunday’s vote saw around 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges choose candidates from preapproved lists, part of a process to produce nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body. President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later select the remaining third.

Citing security and political reasons, authorities postponed the vote in areas outside government control, including Kurdish-held parts of Syria’s north and northeast, as well as the province of Suwayda, held by the Druze minority. Those suspensions left 21 seats empty.

Najmeh was cited by news agency AFP as saying the state was “serious” about having “supplementary ballots” to fill the assembly’s seats.

Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid said: “If you ask the Druze in the south or the Kurds in the north, they say [the elections] were not representative.

“If you ask people in major cities, like Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, and other parts of the country, they’re hopeful that this is the first taste of a real election.”

On March 10, Syria’s Kurds and Damascus agreed to integrate Kurdish-administered civil and military institutions in the country’s northeast into the state by the year’s end, but negotiations on implementing the deal have stalled.

Delays in implementing the March 10 agreement meant there were no timetables as yet for ballots in Raqqa and Hasakeh, according to Najmeh.

Najmeh said that the president’s choice would perhaps “compensate” for some underrepresented components of Syrian society, but he rejected the idea of a quota-based system.

Political and rights activist Nour al-Jandali, who was selected for a seat in central Syria’s city of Homs, was quoted by AFP as saying the new lawmakers “have a great responsibility”.

She noted challenges the new legislature faces, including “how we re-establish a state built on freedom, citizenship and justice”, adding that “women must have a real and active role” in drafting public policy.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa discuss cooperation and mutual respect as Ukraine and Syria rebuild diplomatic relations.

Ukraine and Syria have formally restored diplomatic relations as their leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following his meeting with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, along with an accompanying delegation, also attended the meeting on Wednesday in New York, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement.

Ukraine broke off relations with Syria in 2022 after the government of the country’s former ruler, Bashar al-Assad, moved to recognise the “independence” of the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Shortly after, Syria announced it would break ties with Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine and Syria signed a communique on the restoration of their diplomatic relations.

“We welcome this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their path to stability,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.

“During our negotiations with the President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, we also discussed in detail promising sectors for developing cooperation, security threats faced by both countries, and the importance of countering them,” Zelenskyy said.

Today, Ukraine and Syria signed a Joint Communiqué on the restoration of diplomatic relations. We welcome this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their path to stability.

During our negotiations with President of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa, we also discussed… pic.twitter.com/HBXsoaRob8

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 24, 2025

The Ukrainian leader said the two sides agreed to build “our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust”.

Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday with a delegation of ministers to join the annual UN General Assembly, marking Syria’s first participation in the event at the presidential level in nearly 60 years.

Damascus had boycotted the gathering after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when Israel occupied the Golan Heights in southwest Syria.

President Nureddin al-Atassi was the last Syrian head of state to attend the UN summit, holding office from 1966 to 1970.

In January, al-Sharaa assumed power in Damascus after the opposition forces he led overthrew President al-Assad’s regime, bringing an end to the Assad family’s five-decade rule over Syria.

In his debut speech at the UNGA earlier on Wednesday, al-Sharaa called for the lifting of international sanctions on his war-torn nation.

Al-Sharaa highlighted the reform measures introduced in the months since he took power, including the creation of new institutions, plans for elections and efforts to attract foreign investment.

According to UNHCR, more than seven million Syrians remain displaced inside the country.

The United Nations has said that one million Syrian refugees have returned to their country since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December, while warning that funding for humanitarian operations is falling.

“In just nine months, one million Syrians have returned to their country following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government on 8 December 2024,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The agency added that 1.8 million people displaced within Syria during its nearly 14 years of civil war had also returned to their areas of origin.

Nearly half of Syria’s pre-war population of 13 million was displaced by the conflict that began after the Assad regime’s crackdown on peaceful antigovernment protests as part of the Arab Spring protests in 2011.

Challenges for returnees

While describing the mass returns as “a sign of the great hope and high expectations Syrians have following the political transition in the country,” UNHCR said many of those heading back are struggling to rebuild their lives.

“Destroyed homes and infrastructure, weak and damaged basic services, a lack of job opportunities, and volatile security are challenging people’s determination to return and recover,” the agency said.

According to UNHCR, more than seven million Syrians remain displaced inside the country and more than 4.5 million are still abroad. It urged greater investment in stabilisation efforts and increased support for vulnerable families.

Call for humanitarian support

“The international community, private sector, and Syrians in the diaspora must come together and intensify their efforts to support recovery and ensure that the voluntary return of those displaced by conflict is sustainable and dignified and they are not forced to flee again,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

A recent UNHCR survey found that 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq want to return home one day, with 18 percent saying they hope to do so within the next year.

“They have endured a lot of suffering in the past 14 years and the most vulnerable among them still need protection and assistance,” Grandi said. “Sustained support to hosting countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye is equally critical to ensure returns are voluntary, safe and dignified.”

UNHCR warned that funds for humanitarian operations are dwindling. Inside Syria, only 24 percent of the required funding is available, while for the wider regional Syria response, just 30 percent of the requested funds have been provided.

“This is not the time to cut back support for the Syrian people and their push for a better Syria for them and the region,” the agency said.

Syria’s al-Sharaa voices hope for deal, warns of regional risks due to Israeli attempts to fragment country.

Israel is close to striking a “de-escalation” agreement with Syria, after the latter’s President signalled that his country was “scared” of the former’s relentless attacks since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s rule last year.

United States Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the agreement would see Israel stopping its attacks on its neighbour, while Syria will agree to not move any machinery or heavy equipment near the Israeli border.

Barrack said that both sides were negotiating “in good faith” on the agreement, which had been slated for completion this week, but had been slowed down by the Rosh Hashana holiday – the Jewish New Year – this week. The agreement would serve as first step towards an eventual security deal, he said.

Speaking shortly before Barrack, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled longtime autocrat ruler al-Assad back in December, voiced hope for a security deal, pointing out that his country had not created problems with Israel.

“We are scared of Israel, not the other way around,” he told an event of the Middle East Institute in New York.

“There are multiple risks with Israel stalling on the negotiations and insisting on violating our airspace and incursions into our territory,” he said.

“Jordan is under pressure, and any talk of partitioning Syria will hurt Iraq, will hurt Turkiye. That will take us all back to square one,” he added.

Al-Sharaa will be the first Syria leader to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday in six decades.

Risks of fragmentation

Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades, the enmity between the pair heightening during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has hobbled Syria’s attempts to get back on a stable footing, trashing a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two states, striking Syrian military assets and sending troops to within 20 km (12 miles) of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa said last week that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions.

Israel has alternately claimed that its strikes on Syria are aimed at preventing terrorism or protecting the country’s Druze minority, notably in the southern area of Suwayda where sectarian violence erupted in June. But Israel has brazenly bombed central Damascus as well.

Critics charge that Israel is seeking to fragment the country in a bid to keep it weak and exert its own dominance over the region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, al-Sharaa renewed his call to the US to formally lift sanctions imposed on his country to enable it to rebuild and held talks this week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Israel has been lobbying US lawmakers and policymakers at the State Department for months to keep sanctions in place.

In a historical twist of fate for the ages, al-Sharaa sat down for interview this week, whilst in New York for the UNGA, with former US General David Petraeus, who once arrested the then rebel righter and led American forces during the invasion of Iraq, later becoming the director of the CIA.

Taking the stage at a political forum in New York City for an interview, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and retired four-star United States General David Petraeus have acknowledged the peculiarity of the situation.

Al-Sharaa, who overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad and ended his family’s 50-year rule of Syria in a blazing military offensive late last year, has been president since January.

Petraeus commanded US forces during their invasion of Iraq – forces who captured and imprisoned al-Sharaa from 2006 to 2011 for fighting against the invasion. Petraeus later served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

After his release, al-Sharaa established the al-Nusra Front in Syria in 2012 to fight al-Assad. Four years later, it severed its ties with al-Qaeda. A year later, al-Nusra merged with other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Sharaa.

HTS was designated a “terrorist organisation” by the US in 2018, citing past ties to al-Qaeda, a designation the US revoked in July as Washington softened its approach to post-Assad Syria.

The US had placed a $10m bounty on al-Sharaa’s head, lifting it only in late December.

Significance of timing and venue

Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday to attend the United Nations General Assembly, the first Syrian head of state to do so in almost six decades.

The president and his large delegation held meetings, including with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the leader addressed events on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Monday.

With Petraeus, he then participated in the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit, a global affairs forum held alongside the General Assembly that brings together world leaders, business executives and NGO figures to foster public-private partnerships and dialogue.

Last year, Concordia said it had more than 300 speakers, including nine heads of state, and more than 3,600 attendees from 112 countries. Past participants include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US business titan Warren Buffett and former US President Joe Biden.

Why is Petraeus a ‘fan’ of al-Sharaa?

The former US general not only acknowledged the odd pairing but used it to praise al-Sharaa, who has set an October date for parliamentary elections in Syria.

“His trajectory from insurgent leader to head of state has been one of the most dramatic political transformations in recent Middle Eastern history,” Petraeus told the audience.

Later in the interview, he showed concern for the Syrian leader’s personal wellbeing, asking whether he is getting enough sleep. Petraeus said al-Sharaa has “many fans” and that he is one of them.

“At a time, we were in combat and now we move to discourse,” al-Sharaa said with a smile when asked about their history, adding that people who have gone through war know the importance of peace.

“We cannot judge the past based on the rules of today and cannot judge today based on the rules of the past,” the Syrian president said.

Talking about his time as an al-Qaeda commander, al-Sharaa said “maybe there were mistakes” before but what matters now is defending the Syrian people and the region from instability.

“Our commitment to that line is what brought us here today to [New York], sitting here among allies and friends.”

Al-Sharaa said he believed he was fighting for a “noble” cause that deserves support.

Asked about deadly sectarian violence in Syria this year, he said the al-Assad regime had left Syria in chaos and “all parties made mistakes, including parts of the government”, during the violence.

He added that a newly formed council is investigating and would prosecute all violators.

He said the Syrian people have rallied around the new government and the economic development and unification of Syria are the priorities now.

In this vein, he reiterated his request for the US Congress to revoke the Caesar Syria Civil Protection Act of 2019, which sanctions Syria.

The president reiterated his stance on protecting Syria’s minorities, including the Kurdish population in the north, whose rights must be protected in the constitution. However, he added, Kurdish armed forces must not operate outside the state’s auspices as the government and its army must be the only entity with guns.

The Syrian leader talked about Israel as well, pointing out that Israel has attacked Syria more than 1,000 times since al-Assad fell and continues to occupy the Golan Heights.

However, al-Sharaa said Syria is focused on rebuilding and avoiding another war, so security talks are under way with Israel to reach an agreement based on a 1974 disengagement deal that was mediated by the US.

The last Syrian president to address the UN General Assembly spoke at the gathering in 1967.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has arrived in New York for the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), becoming the first Syrian head of state to attend the annual gathering in almost six decades.

The last Syrian leader to attend the UNGA was President Nureddin al-Atassi, who ruled before the al-Assad family came to power in 1971 and maintained its rule until al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government in December.

Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday, leading a large delegation of Syrian officials, in what state media described as a “landmark trip”.

The symbolism of the visit was also significant because it is the latest milestone in the normalisation of al-Sharaa and his government, who seized power in the country in a lightning offensive after spending more than a decade as a rebel fighter in northern Syria.

Al-Sharaa had a meeting with United States President Donald Trump in May, the first such encounter between a Syrian president and a US president in 25 years, at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the meeting, Trump said the US would drop all sanctions on Syria, which he subsequently did, and added that Washington was “exploring normalising relations with Syria’s new government”.

Al-Sharaa’s fledgling government has been contending with internal strife, notably an eruption of violence in the southern area of Suwayda in June, as well repeated Israeli attacks and military incursions into Syrian territory despite talks between the two nations.

Syria has accused Israel of violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that followed their 1973 war, by establishing intelligence facilities and military posts in demilitarised areas to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, al-Sharaa said “President Trump took a big step towards Syria by lifting the sanctions with a quick, courageous and historic decision.

“He recognized that Syria should be safe, stable and unified. This is in the greatest interest of all the countries in the world, not just Syria,” he added, saying he hoped to have another meeting with Trump while in the US.

“We need to discuss a great many issues and mutual interests between Syria and the USA. We must restore relations in a good and direct way.”

At the end of June, Trump signed an executive order “terminating” most remaining sanctions on Syria, which was welcomed in Damascus as unlocking “long-awaited reconstruction and development” funds.

After arriving in the US, al-Sharaa met members of the Syrian community.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also raised the country’s new flag over the Washington embassy.

في لحظة تاريخية، وزير الخارجية والمغتربين السيد أسعد حسن الشيباني يرفع علم الجمهورية العربية السورية فوق مبنى السفارة السورية في العاصمة الأميركية واشنطن. pic.twitter.com/PWyUEGSIBK

— وزارة الخارجية والمغتربين السورية (@syrianmofaex) September 19, 2025

Translation: In a historic moment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Mr Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, raises the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic above the building of the Syrian embassy in the US capital, Washington.

A third of the People’s Assembly of Syria seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Syria will elect a new People’s Assembly on October 5, the first parliament to be chosen since the fall of Bashar al-Assad late last year.

The vote for members of the parliament will take place “across all electoral districts”, the state-run SANA news agency reported on Sunday.

The announcement comes as the new government seeks to rebuild state institutions and gain legitimacy amid regional and international efforts to stabilise the war-battered country.

A third of the assembly’s 210 seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The rest will be chosen by local committees supervised by the electoral commission. The chamber will be tasked with approving legislation aimed at overhauling decades of state-controlled economic policies and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria’s foreign policy.

The new parliament is also expected to “lay the groundwork for a broader democratic process” following al-Assad’s removal in December after nearly 14 years of civil war, SANA said. Critics, however, warn that the current system does not adequately represent Syria’s marginalised communities.

Authorities had initially said the vote would take place in September. The electoral commission previously indicated that polling in the provinces of Suwayda, Hasakah and Raqqa would be delayed because of security concerns.

Suwayda witnessed clashes in July between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, while Hasakah and Raqqa remain partly under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

In March, al-Sharaa’s administration issued a constitutional declaration to guide the interim period until the election.

The document preserves a central role for Islamic law as well as guarantees women’s rights and freedom of expression. Opponents have expressed concern that the framework consolidates too much power in the hands of Syria’s leadership.

Al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group played a key role in al-Assad’s fall, has also turned to regional diplomacy to bolster his government and Syria’s security.

He told local media that security talks with Israel are a “necessity”, stressing that any agreement must respect Syria’s territorial integrity and end Israeli violations of its airspace.

Istanbul, Turkiye – Just hours after Israel launched strikes last week against Qatar – a United States-designated “major non-NATO ally” and one of Washington’s closest Gulf partners – pro-Israel commentators quickly shifted their attention to Turkiye.

In Washington, Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, suggested that Turkiye could be Israel’s next target and warned that it should not rely on its NATO membership for protection.

On social media, Israeli academic and political figure Meir Masri posted, “Today Qatar, tomorrow Turkey.” Ankara responded sharply. In unusually harsh language, a senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote: “To the dog of Zionist Israel … soon the world will find peace with your erasure from the map.”

For months, pro-Israel media outlets have steadily escalated their rhetoric against Turkiye, portraying it as “Israel’s most dangerous enemy”.

Israeli commentators have also framed Turkiye’s presence in the eastern Mediterranean as a “threat” and its role in rebuilding post-war Syria as a “new rising danger”.

With Israel’s regional aggression escalating and its war on Gaza showing no sign of ending, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan retaliated in August by suspending economic and trade ties with Israel.

“In Ankara, this [anti-Turkish] rhetoric is taken seriously, with Israel seen as seeking regional hegemony,” Omer Ozkizilcik, non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera.

“Turkiye increasingly feels that Israeli aggression has no limits and enjoys American support,” added Ozkizilcik.

The strikes on Qatar also likely underscored Ankara’s doubts about US security guarantees as a NATO ally. Despite Doha’s special ally status with Washington, Israel faced no visible pushback from the US, leading to questions over whether the US would truly see any attack on Turkiye as an attack on itself, as the NATO charter dictates.

Unlike many Arab states, however, “Turkiye has long ago understood that it cannot rely on the US or NATO for its own national security interests,” said Ozkizilcik.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself now increasingly boasts of his country’s regional expansionist goals. In August, when asked whether he believed in the idea of a “Greater Israel”, he replied: “Absolutely.”

For Ankara, such rhetoric is not just symbolic – it signals an Israeli vision of dominance that stretches across the Middle East, potentially clashing head-on with Turkiye’s own regional outlook.

On Sunday, Fidan told Al Jazeera that Israel’s “Greater Israel” vision – which some religious Zionists believe extends into modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan – aims to “keep the countries in the region weak, ineffective, and especially to leave Israel’s neighbouring states divided”.

Over the last few weeks alone, Israel – in addition to continuing its genocidal onslaught in Gaza and nearly-daily raids in the occupied West Bank – also attacked Yemen and Syria, and is accused of hitting the Gaza aid flotilla in Tunisia.

Against this backdrop, Turkiye and Israel are already in a “geopolitical rivalry”, noted Ozkizilcik, adding that Israel’s actions clashed with what the analyst views as the “Turkish agenda to have strong [centralised] states” rather than decentralised states where multiple forces can hold power.

Regional hegemon

The sense that Israel is trying to become the region’s sole dominant power seemed to be confirmed in July when Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria, made a startling admission: that Israel would prefer a fragmented and divided Syria.

“Strong nation-states are a threat – especially Arab states, [which] are viewed as a threat to Israel,” he said.

The subtext for Ankara was clear: Israel believes it needs to be the hegemon in the region to feel secure.

Israel’s actions bear this out. It has bombed Syria dozens of times since December 8 – when former President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow – and grabbed Syrian territory in the immediate chaos.

It decapitated much of Hezbollah’s leadership in 2024 and still occupies parts of Lebanon despite a ceasefire, long seeking to weaken or destroy the group.

In June, Israel attacked Iran, sparking a 12-day war that struck Iranian military and nuclear facilities, killing senior commanders and nuclear scientists, and dragged in the US.

The attacks aimed not only to weaken Tehran’s defence and nuclear capabilities but also to push Washington towards regime change, targeting one of Israel’s strongest rivals in the region.

Israel may now view Turkiye as the next potential challenge to its regional hegemony, explaining its adamant stance that Ankara will not be allowed to establish new bases in Syria that “could threaten Israel” – as Netanyahu has previously said.

“The first manifestation of Turkish-Israeli friction will most likely appear in the Syrian front in the land and air,” warns Cem Gurdeniz, a retired Turkish admiral and architect of the Blue Homeland doctrine, a maritime strategy that calls for Turkiye to assert its sovereignty and safeguard its interests across the surrounding seas – the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.

“In parallel, Israel’s deepening military and intelligence footprint in Cyprus, tightly woven with Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration under American auspices, is perceived in Ankara as a deliberate attempt to fracture and contain the Blue Homeland,” Gurdeniz told Al Jazeera.

“To Ankara, this is not a defensive posture by Israel but an offensive encirclement strategy that could threaten both Turkish maritime freedom and the security of the Turkish Cypriot people,” he added, referring to Turkiye’s ties to the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is only Turkiye recognises, rather than the rest of Cyprus, which is ruled by Greek Cypriots.

The division of Cyprus is a major source of discontent between Turkiye, Greece and Cyprus.

Reports that Cyprus received Israeli air-defence systems last week are likely to raise alarm in Ankara.

In tandem in Syria, Israel has made no secret that what it considers to be a stable Syria “can only be a federal” one with “different autonomies”, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told European leaders at a meeting in Brussels in February.

Turkiye, on the other hand, backs the new Syrian administration, which insists on a centralised and unitary state.

For now, tensions between Israel and Turkiye can be described as “controlled”, says Gokhan Cinkara, director of Necmettin Erbakan University’s Global and Regional Studies Centre in Turkiye.

“At present, the riskiest scenario for Turkiye would be an uncontrolled outbreak of intergroup conflict in Syria. For this reason, Ankara is likely advising the new Syrian administration to act with a degree of rational pragmatism,” Cinkara told Al Jazeera.

“The immaturity of Syria’s security apparatus makes any potential intergroup clashes harder to contain, and risks turning it into protracted ethnic and sectarian conflicts. In the short term, therefore, adopting a unitary model seems difficult,” he added.

Red lines and risks

Netanyahu, for his part, is pushing for a “Balkanised” Syria, divided along ethnic and religious lines, demanding the demilitarisation of much of southern Syria, mostly populated by the country’s Druze population.

That is a move that, if implemented, could light the touchpaper and ignite demands from members of other groups in the country, including the Kurds and Alawite, for their own tailored versions of de facto autonomy.

“Turkiye, however, has clear red lines in Syria,” says Murat Yesiltas, director of foreign policy research at SETA, a think tank in Ankara with close ties to the government.

“The US and Israel’s attempt to reshape the regional order carries various dangers and risks, deepening fragmentation in the Middle East,” Yesiltas told Al Jazeera.

In March, Israel’s most influential security think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), published a piece that warned against the nascent peace process between Turkiye and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is seeking to close a chapter on a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

The INSS warned that this could “weaken the ability of the Kurds in Syria to continue to operate autonomously” and contribute to Ankara “expanding its influence in southern Syria, in a way that could increase the threat to Israeli freedom of action”.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz made clear that swaths of newly occupied territory in southern Syria will be held for an “unlimited amount of time”.

As Turkiye scoped out potential military bases in Syria’s Homs province and the main airport in Hama province in coordination with the newly established Damascus government, Israel bombed the sites.

“If Tel Aviv persists on this path, a conflict between Ankara and Tel Aviv will become inevitable. Turkiye cannot accept policies that perpetuate instability on its southern border,” said Yesiltas.

But full-blown rivalry is “not inevitable” as both sides recognise the costs of confrontation, particularly given economic interdependence, Andreas Krieg, associate professor of security studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel’s threat to Turkiye is not conventional military aggression but rather the targeting of Turkish interests via indirect means,” said Krieg, speaking about Ankara’s interests in Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and the South Caucasus.

Given Washington’s full and seemingly unconditional support for Netanyahu’s bid to “reshape the region”, Krieg says Ankara’s prescription is to “strengthen strategic deterrence, especially through expanded air-defence, missile systems and intelligence capabilities” and to pursue regional coalitions with Qatar, Jordan and Iraq while maintaining open channels with Washington to “avoid full strategic isolation”.

“Ankara must recognise that future flashpoints are more likely to emerge in the grey zone – covert operations, air strikes, and proxy competition – than in formal declarations or diplomacy,” he added.

Trump administration says Syrian nationals in the US must leave the country within 60 days or face arrest and deportation.

The United States has ended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Syria, warning Syrian migrants they now face arrest and deportation if they do not leave the country within 60 days.

The action on Friday came as part of US President Donald Trump’s broad effort to strip legal status from migrants.

It will terminate TPS for more than 6,000 Syrians who have had access to the legal status since 2012, according to a Federal Register notice posted Friday.

“Conditions in Syria no longer prevent their nationals from returning home,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

“Syria has been a hotbed of terrorism and extremism for nearly two decades, and it is contrary to our national interest to allow Syrians to remain in our country.”

The statement said Syrian nationals currently living in the US have 60 days to voluntarily depart the country and return home.

“After the 60 days have expired, any Syrian national admitted under TPS who have not begun their voluntary removal proceedings will be subject to arrest and deportation,” it said.

Trump, a Republican, has sought to end temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants in the US, including some who have lived and worked in the country legally for decades.

The administration has said deportation protections were overused in the past and that many migrants no longer merit protections.

Democrats and advocates for the migrants have said that TPS enrollees could be forced to return to dangerous conditions and that US employers depend on their labour.

Trump has previously ended the status for Venezuelans, Hondurans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Ukrainians and thousands of others.

US immigration judge said prominent pro-Palestine activist withheld information on green card application.

An immigration judge in the United States has ordered that pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil, who played a leading role in protests last year against Israel’s war on Gaza at the prestigious Columbia University, be deported to Algeria or Syria.

Court documents, revealed on Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), showed that Louisiana immigration Judge Jamee Comans issued the ruling on September 12, accusing Khalil of failing to disclose key information when he applied and secured lawful permanent residency in the US.

Khalil, a native of Syria and an Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin, has previously said he fears being targeted by Israel for his activism if he is deported to either country.

Judge Comans claimed that Khalil did not disclose his ties to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an activist group which advocates for an economic boycott of Israel, on his green card application, describing it as a “lack of candor” by the applicant.

“This Court finds that Respondent wilfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process and reducing the likelihood his applications could be denied,” Comans said.

Khalil’s lawyers responded, saying that they intend to appeal the deportation order, and pointed to a federal district court’s order earlier this year prohibiting the government from immediately deporting or detaining Khalil as his federal court case proceeds.

Khalil’s legal team now has 30 days from the day of the deportation ruling, on September 12, to appeal against the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. His lawyers said they expect the appeal process to be swift and their attempt unsuccessful, as noncitizens are “almost never” granted stays of removal.

US immigration agents first arrested Khalil – a former graduate student at Columbia University in New York – on March 8 after showing up at his student apartment building on campus in the city.

The arrest was part of a wider crackdown on pro-Palestine activism on college campuses across the US, which saw several overseas students detained and deported while universities were hit with federal funding cuts by Trump over alleged anti-Semitic activities.

Authorities held Khalil at an immigration detention centre in Louisiana for three months until he was released in June following a ruling by US District Judge Michael Farbiarz that his detention was unconstitutional.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and law enforcement officials had repeatedly portrayed Khalil’s peaceful activism as anti-Jewish and supportive of Hamas, but they failed to provide any evidence backing their allegations.

Farbiarz ruled that the Trump administration was likely violating Khalil’s right to free speech by detaining and attempting to deport him under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows the removal of foreign nationals who bear “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

The White House has been relentless in its attempts to deport Khalil, pivoting more recently to the alleged violations of his green card application.

Khalil’s lawyers expressed concern following the deportation ruling that the “only meaningful impediment” to their client’s deportation was now the “important order prohibiting removal” issued by Judge Farbiarz.

In a statement published by the ACLU on Wednesday, Khalil also accused the Trump administration of using “fascist tactics” to retaliate against him for his “exercise of free speech”.

“When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide [in Gaza],” Khalil said.

Syria, Jordan and the United States have announced plans to restore security in Suwayda, where sectarian violence in July claimed the lives of more than 250 people.

“The roadmap for a solution in Suwayda includes holding accountable those who attacked civilians, continuing humanitarian and medical aid, compensating those affected, ensuring the return of displaced persons, restoring basic services, deploying local Interior Ministry forces to protect roads, uncovering the fate of missing persons and returning abductees,” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said in a news release on Tuesday after meeting with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi and US Syria’s envoy Tom Barrack in Damascus.

Al-Shibani also said the government was working on a plan for the return of those displaced by the violence, who number more than 160,000, according to UN figures. He did not give details on how these steps would be achieved.

The new plan includes proposals to launch an internal reconciliation process. Violence erupted on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions in the southern Syrian province.

Safadi, for his part, said the parties agreed on a Syrian-Jordanian-American plan “to overcome the events in Suwayda under the framework of Syria’s unity and stability.”

“We want Syria to stabilise, recover and rebuild after years of destruction and suffering, and to start practical steps toward a brighter future for all Syrians,” he added.

Jordan borders Suwayda province and has spent years fighting drug and weapons smuggling from its northern neighbour.

Sectarian violence

The fighting broke out in July following the abduction of a Druze truck driver on a public highway, and later drew in Bedouin tribal fighters from other parts of the country. A ceasefire was established after a week of violence in the Druze-majority province.

The government forces were deployed to restore order, but were accused of siding with the Bedouins.

Israel launched dozens of air attacks on convoys of government forces in Suwayda and even struck the Syrian Ministry of Defence headquarters in the capital Damascus. Israel has pledged to protect Syria’s Druze minority, which it sees as potential allies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in August that his country was engaged in talks to establish a demilitarised zone in southern Syria.

Syria said it held Israel “fully responsible” for the unrest.

After opposition fighters toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel deployed troops to the buffer zone on the Golan Heights. Israel still occupies the Golan Heights, recognised as Syrian territory.

Israel has also repeatedly bombed Syria since al-Assad’s fall.

Meanwhile, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Damascus and Washington were working to reach security understandings with Israel as part of a plan for stability announced earlier in the day with US and Jordanian support for violence-hit Suwayda province.

“The United States, in consultation with the Syrian government, will work to reach security understandings with Israel concerning southern Syria that address the legitimate security concerns of both Syria and Israel while emphasising Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement outlining the roadmap.

Confidence-building

No concrete steps were released Tuesday for how the goals discussed between Jordan, Syria and the US would be accomplished.

“Suwayda belongs to all its components, and it is the state’s duty to restore trust among them, return the displaced, and there is a determination to restore normal life to the governorate,” al-Shibani said in the news release on Tuesday.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Safadi said Syria’s security is an extension of Jordan’s security, adding that “all Syrians are equal citizens in rights and duties within their state”.

He stressed the need to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable and deliver humanitarian assistance.

The US envoy Barrack said he came to Syria “as a representative of the president of the United States and the secretary of state in a difficult moment in the region and the world.”

Barrack said confidence-building “takes inches, centimetres and decades to build and can be lost in an instant.”

“We are going to hit speed bumps or we are going to have bus stops along the way,” he added.

Tuesday’s discussions build on earlier rounds hosted by Amman in July and August that focused on consolidating a ceasefire in Suwayda and finding a resolution to the conflict there. Suwayda has observed a ceasefire since July 19.

Israel has repeatedly entered Syria since the fall of al-Assad and has carried out air raids across the country.

Israeli troops have carried out a ground operation in Syria’s southeastern Deraa province, Syria’s state news agency reported, the latest incursion in the neighbouring country as it also continues air raids against Damascus in various locations.

Soldiers also carried out searches in the Saysoun and Jamlah towns on Sunday, which are adjacent to the 1974 ceasefire line that was meant to separate Israeli and Syrian troops.

On Saturday, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s interim president, said talks with Israel have begun to re-establish a 1974 agreement which was concluded after the 1973 war between the countries.

Israel and Syria have held direct talks in recent months, and al-Sharaa has ruled out normalisation. The talks are aimed at halting Israel’s aggressive actions towards Syria and reaching some kind of security deal.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites and assets across Syria since the fall of former leader Bashar al-Assad in December. It has also expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarised buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

On Tuesday, Syria “strongly condemned” Israeli attacks on several sites in and around Homs city in the west of the country and around the coastal city of Latakia.

The Israeli air attacks represent “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic”, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

While Israel had for years waged a secretive campaign of aerial bombardment against Syria’s military infrastructure, its attacks on its neighbour have ramped up since the war on Gaza and the fall of al-Assad.

In late August, six Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli drone attack on Damascus, which came a day after a ground incursion into Syrian territory by Israeli troops.

The attacks on Syria come amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of a vision for a “Greater Israel“, a concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis that lays claim to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

After violence in southern Syria’s Suwayda on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions, government forces were sent in to quell the fighting. But the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

The Syrian government has blamed Israel for a series of attacks around the country.

The attacks early on Tuesday targeted sites in and around the city of Homs in western Syria and the coastal city of Latakia.

The Syrian government called the attacks “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic”, according to Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.

Israel has attacked Syria hundreds of times since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8 and also conducted a land grab in the chaotic early hours after al-Assad fled to Moscow. Under the al-Assad regime, Israel waged a secretive campaign of aerial bombardment against Syria’s military infrastructure, but attacks have intensified since the war on Gaza began nearly two years ago and even more so since the fall of al-Assad.

In the first days after the fall of the al-Assad regime, Israel launched a devastating series of attacks that destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure in an attempt to create a “sterile zone” in southern Syria.

Israel and Syria have held direct talks in recent months, and while Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has ruled out normalisation, the talks are aimed at halting Israel’s aggressive actions towards Syria and reaching some kind of security deal.

So why then has Israel decided to reinitiate attacks? Here’s what you need to know:

What exactly happened?

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian air force base in Homs, causing huge explosions. No casualties were reported.

Israeli fighter jets also attacked a military barracks in Latakia although there were no reports of casualties there either.

These strikes came on the back of Israeli attacks near Damascus in late August that killed six Syrian soldiers.

The Saudi Arabian news channel Al-Arabiya reported that the site targeted in Homs held Turkish-made rockets and aerial defence equipment. Turkiye has been one of the biggest allies of the new Syrian government and has reportedly agreed to provide Syria with Turkish weapons systems and logistical tools in a military cooperation accord signed in mid-August.

But as relations between Turkiye and Syria grow stronger, tension has been building between Turkiye and Israel. As Israel continues its war on Gaza, which international scholars have called a genocide, Turkiye closed its airspace to Israel and banned Israeli ships from Turkish ports in protest against the war on Gaza.

What is going on between Turkiye and Israel?

Turkiye’s good relations with the new government in Damascus have drawn a reaction from Israel.

Israel has also been accused of trying to undermine Syrian stability by voicing support for Kurdish and Druze autonomy.

This has led to a growing war of words between Turkiye and Israel with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “biggest obstacle to regional peace” in June, shortly after Israel attacked Iran.

Meanwhile, regional newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Netanyahu has been holding security meetings over concerns of Turkiye’s growing influence in Syria and Netanyahu is leaning on Israeli media to portray a confrontation with Ankara as inevitable.

What is Syria saying?

The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Syria’s Foreign Ministry as calling the attacks “a direct threat” to Syrian security and regional stability.

Israel’s continuing and unprovoked attacks on Syria are “part of a series of aggressive escalations pursued by Israel against Syrian territory”, and the government rejects “any attempts to undermine its sovereignty or harm its national security”, the ministry said.

The ministry called on the United Nations to take a “clear and firm stand to put an end” to Israel’s attacks, which it called a “flagrant violation” of international law.

What about Israel?

Israel has not commented yet.

But Israeli forces have been busy with attacks in Syria, Qatar, Gaza and Lebanon, and have been conducting raids on the occupied West Bank. There was also an attack in Tunisia on one of the boats in the aid-carrying Global Sumud flotilla heading towards Gaza that volunteers on board suspect Israel of perpetrating.

Are the peace talks between Israel and Syria dead?

Not necessarily.

Syrian officials have said many times that they do not want a war with Israel. Syria has enough internal troubles going on along its coast, in the south and with the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast, not to mention clashes along the border with Lebanon. Syrian authorities are also painfully aware that Israel is technologically and militarily stronger and backed by a global superpower in the United States, which has been crucial to removing sanctions on Syria and giving the country a chance to revive its economy.

As for Israel, ceasefires or other such agreements with other countries haven’t held it back from launching attacks on them.