Senior Israeli and Syrian officials met in Paris on Monday for two days of US-mediated negotiations on a border security agreement.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing a government official, said a delegation led by the country's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and General Intelligence chief Hussein al-Salama was taking part in the Paris talks.
They will focus on reactivating the 1974 disengagement agreement and securing an Israeli pullback to lines held before December 8, 2024, the date the Assad regime fell, under a “reciprocal security agreement” that preserves Syria’s “non-negotiable” national rights, according to the official.
The talks, the fifth round in total but the first in nearly two months, follow President Donald Trump's request to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their Mar-a-Lago meeting last week, a "source with knowledge" told journalist Barak Ravid, who also cited an Israeli official in his reporting.
Scoop: Senior Syrian and Israeli officials will meet on Monday in Paris under U.S. auspices to resume negotiations on a new security agreement. My story on @axioshttps://t.co/Rt3fDhmBX8
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 4, 2026
Trump's Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, will mediate the new round of negotiations, which are expected to take place over two days.
Netanyahu has appointed a new team led by Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter.
Trump said after meeting Netanyahu in Florida on December 29 that he expects Israel and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa "will get along".
Talks were reportedly delayed due to "big gaps" between the two parties and the resignation of Jerusalem's top negotiator, now-former Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
According to Ravid’s reporting, the goal is a security pact that would demilitarise southern Syria and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the “buffer zone” east of the Golan Heights where the IDF established a presence following the fall of the Assad regime.
The Trump administration views such a pact as a potential first step toward broader diplomatic normalisation between Damascus and Jerusalem.
Former Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman, who leads the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu Party, told JNS at a Knesset faction meeting on Monday that Damascus's new Sunni Islamist government is no different than the Assad regime, with Turkey replacing Iran as Syria's ally.
"What we saw there was a massacre of Druze, as well as Alawites," said Liberman, in reference to government-backed attacks on minorities. He added: "We need to take care of our own security and ultimately reach understandings there that will improve Israel’s security."
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