Axios: Washington proposes a demilitarized economic zone on the Israeli-Syrian border
The United States has submitted a new proposal to Israel and Syria that includes the establishment of a joint demilitarized economic zone on both sides of the border, according to Axios.
The move is aimed at calming the security situation and opening the door to a gradual path of normalization in the future.
Axios quoted a US official as saying the proposal came during a multi-hour round of talks in Paris on Tuesday, which included US-brokered delegations from Israel and Syria.
Israeli and US officials familiar with the matter confirmed that the two sides agreed during the meeting to accelerate the pace of negotiations in the next phase, after a stalemate that lasted about two months.
The US official said the talks were good and frank, noting that the main message the US mediators conveyed was “cooperation rather than disengagement”.
A senior Israeli official said the two sides had expressed a shared desire to reach a security agreement in line with US President Donald Trump’s vision for the Middle East, and agreed to hold more regular meetings and take confidence-building steps.
US Syria envoy Tom Barrack and Trump advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner participated in the mediation.
This is the fifth round of talks sponsored by Washington between Israel and Syria, but the first in two months, after previous negotiations stalled due to fundamental differences between the two sides.
The sources said that Trump had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during their meeting last week in Florida, to return to the negotiating table.
Behind the scenes of the meeting, the United States proposed the establishment of a “Joint Coordination Cell” that would include the United States, Israel and Syria, based in the Jordanian capital Amman, to follow up on the security situation in southern Syria and oversee disarmament talks and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
According to the US plan, all military activities from both sides will be frozen in their current locations, until the details are agreed within the cell.
The US official added that each side will send representatives specialized in diplomatic, military, intelligence and economic affairs to the coordination cell, stressing that this mechanism will be the “engine of the operation” while the United States will assume the role of permanent mediator around the clock.
The US proposal includes the creation of a demilitarized economic zone that includes projects in the fields of renewable energy, agriculture, and tourism, including wind projects and mountain resorts, as well as the involvement of the Druze community in the region.
The US official noted that regional partners have already pledged funding for the zone, without revealing their names.
The Israeli delegation in the negotiations included Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yehiel Leiter, Netanyahu’s military secretary Roman Goffman, and acting national security adviser Gil Reich, while the Syrian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al Shaibani and participated in the meeting with the head of the Syrian intelligence service, Hussein Salameh.
