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Security deal and Golan
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Damascus is seeking to reach a security agreement with Israel, adding that success could pave the way for comprehensive peace without undermining Syria’s right to the Golan Heights.
Al-Sharaa told Al Jazeera that Syria is “working toward concluding a security agreement with Israel,” while stressing that Syria is not seeking confrontation with Israel.
He said the agreement would not require Syria to renounce its right to sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a region Israel occupied during the Six-Day War of 1967.
The Reuters-linked reporting also tied the remarks to the context of Israeli forces penetrating into Syria and taking control of strategic areas after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to rebel forces advancing under Sharaa’s leadership in December 2024.
Lebanon and international voices
Al-Sharaa said Syria is trying to help the Lebanese government but that it would not militarily intervene in the country’s efforts to dismantle Hezbollah’s military power, while warning that any deterioration or chaos in Lebanon would have direct repercussions on Syria.
In the same Al Jazeera interview, he said, “We are avoiding getting into confrontations,” and he framed Syria’s approach as seeking a security agreement with the participation of a group of countries.
The Jerusalem Post reported that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the UN recognizes the Golan Heights as part of Syria during a visit on Sunday.
Reuters-linked coverage also quoted Guterres calling for respect for Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity, and saying “Violations by Israel of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement are unacceptable & must stop.”
Escalation backdrop and stakes
The reporting placed al-Sharaa’s comments alongside ongoing Israel-Syria tensions, including claims that Israeli forces shelled areas in Syria and destroyed an electrical transformer in the village of Maariyah, depriving homes of power, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.
In the Reuters-linked account, al-Sharaa said Syria is “not considering military interventions” in Lebanon, while the same coverage described Israeli strikes on Syria and detentions of individuals from within the country since Israeli troops pushed into Syria after December 2024.
The stakes for Syria, as framed in the sources, include preserving its sovereignty claims over the Golan Heights while pursuing a broader peace process, with the Vietnamese report citing al-Sharaa’s hope that a security agreement would pave the way for comprehensive peace without affecting Syria’s position on the Golan issue.
The sources also describe a diplomatic and economic rebuilding effort under al-Sharaa’s government, with Reuters-linked reporting saying it is seeking to rebuild international ties and the local economy after nearly 14 years of war and decades of isolation and death under Assad family rule.
