Syria and Arab-Israeli Relations
Syrian rebel leader and head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Ahmad "Abu Mohammad al-Julani" al-Sharaa addressed Syria's future, focusing on international relations, for the first time on 14 December 2024 in an interview with opposition TV channel Syria.tv. Julani said, "Israel's excuses for entering Syria no longer exist. After the Iranians' departure, there are no more justifications for any foreign intervention in Syria." "The exhausted Syrian situation after years of war and conflicts does not allow for entering into any new conflicts."
The head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, which ousted the Syrian government earlier this month amid widespread reports of Western and Israeli support, said 16 December 2024 he will not allow the country's soil to be used for anti-Israeli attacks. "We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks," Ahmed al-Sharaa alleged in an interview with The Times. He ruled out attacks from the Syrian territory against the Israeli regime or any other "state," in, what observers said, implied his recognition of the regime in those terms and Tel Aviv's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Earlier, al-Sharaa had also asserted that his group "will not engage" in a conflict with Tel Aviv, alleging that the country's "weakened state" was the reason. The founder of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and the former deputy commander of Daesh (ISIS) had also said that the regime had no longer any reason to attack the country because "Hezbollah and Iran are no more." In the interview, he repeated the remarks, alleging that Israeli strikes against Syria "must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions."
Israel had markedly intensified its deadly attacks against Syria, especially targeting its military infrastructure, in the aftermath of its takeover by the anti-Damascus militants, who are widely reported to have been receiving extensive military support and cooperation on the part of the Israeli regime and the West since the outbreak of foreign-backed militancy in the country in 2011.
The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's power was a direct result of Israel's strikes against his key allies in the region, namely Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 08 December 2024. "Today is a historic day in the history of the Middle East. The Assad regime, a key link in Iran's axis of evil, has fallen. This is a direct result of the strikes we have carried out against Iran and Hezbollah, the Assad regime's main supporters. This has triggered a chain reaction throughout the Middle East among those who wanted to free themselves from this repressive and tyrannical regime. This, of course, opens up new, very important opportunities for the State of Israel," Netanyahu said during his visit to the Golan Heights on the border between Israel and Syria.
Previously, having Bashar al-Assad's regime in power had largely served Israel’s interests in Syria. Although Assad remained an ally of Iran, and allowed Hezbollah to transport weapons destined for Lebanon via Syria, his regime was too weak to risk direct confrontation with Tel Aviv. Assad, therefore, allowed Israel to carry out air strikes against Hezbollah or Iranian interests, individuals and military installations without ever retaliating.
The ethos that bound Syria together was essentially resistance to Israel. Successive generations of Syrians had been raised around the core principal that Syria was threatened by Israel. There was endemic skepticism in Syria that a return of the Golan will ever be possible. There was little objective discussion of what peace would entail. A failure to prepare the public for possible concessions could prove a vulnerability on the Syrian side. The security establishmentcould conceivably be threatened by the absence of war. The Arab street viewed Asad as the only Arab leader to oppose Israel's actions and support the resistance in an unambiguous way. Asad's credentials on this point were strengthened immeasurably by Israel's operation in Gaza.
Syria was an active belligerent in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, during which Israel occupied the Golan Heights and the city of Quneitra. Following the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War, during which Israel occupied additional Syrian territory, Syria accepted UN Security Council Resolution 338, which signaled an implicit acceptance of Resolution 242. Resolution 242, which became the basis for the peace process negotiations begun in Madrid in 1981, calls for a just and lasting Middle East peace to include withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in 1967; termination of the state of belligerency; and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of all regional states and of their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.
As a result of the mediation efforts of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Syria and Israel concluded a disengagement agreement in May 1974, enabling Syria to recover territory lost in the October war and part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel since 1967, including Quneitra. The two sides have effectively implemented the agreement, which was monitored by UN forces.
In December 1981, the Israeli Knesset voted to extend Israeli law to the part of the Golan Heights over which Israel retained control. The UN Security Council subsequently passed a resolution calling on Israel to rescind this measure. Syria participated in the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in October 1991, and negotiations that were conducted intermittently through the 1990s came very close to succeeding. However, the parties were unable to come to an agreement over Syria's nonnegotiable demand that Israel withdraw from occupied territory in Golan to the positions it held on June 4, 1967. The peace process collapsed following the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in September 2000, though Syria continues to call for a comprehensive settlement based on UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and the land-for-peace formula adopted at the 1991 Madrid conference.
Tensions between Israel and Syria increased as the second Intifada dragged on, primarily as a result of Syria's unwillingness to stop giving sanctuary to Palestinian terrorist groups conducting operations against Israel. In October 2003, following a suicide bombing carried out by a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Haifa that killed 20 Israeli citizens, Israeli Defense Forces attacked a suspected Palestinian terrorist training camp 15 kilometers north of Damascus. This was the first such Israeli attack deep inside Syrian territory since the 1973 war. During the summer of 2006 tensions again heightened due to Israeli fighter jets buzzing President Asad's summer palace in response to Syria's support for the Palestinian group Hamas, Syria's support of Hizballah during the July-August 2006 conflict in Lebanon, and the rearming of Hizballah in violation of UN Resolution 1701.
Rumors of negotiations between the Israeli and Syrian Governments were initially discounted by both Israel and Syria, with spokespersons for both countries indicating that any such talks were not officially sanctioned. However, the rumors were confirmed in early 2008 when it was announced that indirect talks facilitated by Turkey were taking place. The talks continued until December 2008 when Syria withdrew in response to Israel's shelling of the Gaza Strip. Turkey’s relationship with Israel cooled following the Israeli attack on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, part of the "Gaza Flotilla" in 2010, which resulted in the deaths of Turkish civilians including a participant with dual American and Turkish citizenship. Turkey also has criticized the Syrian Government strongly over its violent repression of opposition protesters, and indirect peace talks are not considered possible through this channel.
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