US representatives convey Ahmed al Sharaa’s position on the Abraham Accords and its conditions for reaching some agreement with Israel

Two members of the US Congress revealed that the Syrian transitional president, Ahmad al Sharaa, expressed his willingness to participate in the Abraham Accords and establish some kind of understanding with Israel, provided a set of security and political guarantees are met, most notably a halt to Israeli raids on Syrian territory and a negotiated arrangement regarding the Golan Heights.

According to statements by Republican Representatives Cory Mills (Democrat of Florida) and Marlin Stutzman (Democrat from Indiana), reported by the New York Post, al Sharaa affirmed during separate meetings last month that he is open to dialogue, but stressed the need for Israel to stop bombing inside Syria as a prerequisite for any move toward normalization.

Stutzman said that al Sharaa expressed his openness to the Abraham Accords, provided there are no plans to divide Syria along sectarian or regional lines.

He added that the Syrian president affirmed his commitment to the country’s unity and his rejection of any attempts to divide it, noting that this would be a real obstacle to any agreement.

Regarding the occupied Golan Heights, al Sharaa made clear that progress toward any agreement with Israel must include a serious discussion about the status of the Golan Heights.

He didn’t specify though, whether the Golan Heights return to Syria is a necessary condition for joining the agreements, but rather said that the issue requires reaching some kind of understanding.

This news comes on the heels of former US President Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East, where he described al Sharaa as a “handsome young man with a chance to turn things around,” and pointed to the possibility of Syria joining the Abraham Accords as a major political breakthrough.

It’s worth noting that these agreements, which began in 2020, led to the normalization of relations between Israel and both the UAE and Bahrain, and are considered among the most prominent foreign policy achievements of the Trump administration.

In the same context, Stutzman noted that al Sharaa has emphasized the expulsion of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters from Syria as part of his efforts to rebuild his country’s relations with Arab and Western countries, particularly Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

He added that the Syrian president seeks to boost trade and the economy, asserting that he has a vision that will make him a regional hero if he succeeds in implementing it.

Representative Mills considered al Sharaa’s statements to represent “an important step toward lasting stability in the region,” noting that normalization between Syria and Israel would represent a qualitative shift in the regional political landscape.