Syrian and Israeli officials meet in Baku, says diplomatic source in Damascus
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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right) welcoming Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Baku, Azerbaijan, on July 12.
PHOTO: EPA
Follow topic:
- A Syrian and Israeli official will meet in Baku during President Sharaa's Azerbaijan visit to discuss Israel's military presence in Syria.
- Sharaa seeks international pressure on Israel to halt attacks, having previously engaged in indirect contacts, while Israel desires peace.
- Trump said Sharaa agreed to consider normalising relations with Israel, and Azerbaijan will begin exporting gas to Syria via Turkey.
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DAMASCUS - A Syrian and an Israeli official met face to face in Baku July 12 on the sidelines of a visit to Azerbaijan by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a diplomatic source in Damascus said.
The meeting marked a major step for the two countries which have been foes for decades, and comes after Israel initially cold-shouldered Mr Sharaa’s administration as militant because of his past links to Al-Qaeda.
“A meeting took place between a Syrian official and an Israeli official on the sidelines of Sharaa’s visit to Baku,” the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Israel is a major arms supplier to Azerbaijan and has a significant diplomatic presence in the Caucasus nation which neighbours its arch foe Iran.
Mr Sharaa himself did not take part in the meeting, which focused on “the recent Israeli military presence in Syria”, the source added.
After the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad
It also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone that used to separate the opposing forces in the strategic Golan Heights, from which it has conducted forays deeper into southern Syria.
Mr Sharaa has said repeatedly that Syria does not seek conflict with its neighbours, and has instead asked the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks.
His government recently confirmed that it had held indirect contacts with Israel seeking a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement
Late in June, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel was interested in striking a peace and normalisation agreement with Syria.
A Syria government source quoted by state media responded that such talk was “premature”.
But during a visit to Lebanon this week, US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said: “The dialogue has started between Syria and Israel”.
After meeting Mr Sharaa in Riyadh in May, US President Donald Trump told reporters he had expressed hope that Syria would join other Arab states which normalised their relations with Israel.
“(Mr Sharaa) said yes. But they have a lot of work to do,” Mr Trump said.
During his visit to Baku, Mr Sharaa held talks with his counterpart, Mr Ilham Aliyev, the two governments said.
Azerbaijan announced it would begin exporting gas to Syria via Turkey, a key ally of both governments, a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency said. AFP
