Israel’s condition for relations with Damascus

In a surprising development in the history of regional normalization agreements, Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli Foreign Minister, welcomed the idea of normalizing relations with Syria but set a condition for it.

In an interview with the Israeli network “i24,” he stated: “If an opportunity arises to sign a peace agreement or normalize relations with Syria, provided that the Golan Heights remain under our control, this would be positive for Israel’s future.”

This stance is notable because, historically, Israel returned occupied territories to Egypt and Jordan to encourage normalization agreements with those countries. However, in the case of Syria, not only is there no mention of returning the Golan Heights, but the Israeli Foreign Minister has explicitly made maintaining control over the occupied Golan a condition for normalization.

These remarks come after an Israeli report did not rule out the possibility of signing a peace [normalization] agreement with Damascus before the end of the current year.

A Syrian source within the Jolani government also revealed to the same network that Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement before the end of 2025.

According to this Syrian source, the agreement will fully normalize relations between the two sides, and the Golan Heights, currently under Israeli occupation, will, in their words, be transformed into a “peace garden.”

The source further stated that, under this agreement, Israel will gradually withdraw from all Syrian territories it occupied following its incursion into the buffer zone on December 8, 2024, including Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh).