Sharaa: We’re very close to reaching a security agreement with Israel… Syria no longer wants war!
Syrian transitional President Ahmed al Sharaa considered Israel’s targeting of the presidential building and the Syrian Ministry of Defense a declaration of war.
However, he stressed that a security agreement with Israel is inevitable, while Israel’s commitment to this agreement remains in doubt.
Regarding negotiations with Israel following the recent attack on Qatar, Sharaa said, “If the question is, ‘Do I trust Israel?’ the answer is, no ‘I don’t'”.
He explained that Syria knows how to fight, but no longer wants war, noting that the recent events in Sweida were a trap set up at a time when negotiations with Israel were nearing their end.
According to him, US-brokered negotiations with Israel are close to reaching an agreement that could be signed within days, similar to the 1974 agreement.
He stressed that this doesn’t mean in any way the normalization of relations or Syria’s accession to the Abraham Accords.
Sharaa considered his upcoming participation in the UN General Assembly meetings to be a historic precedent, as it’s the first time in sixty years that a Syrian president has participated in these meetings.
He stressed that this represents a new turning point, adding that Syria has become part of the international system and is no longer an exporter of drugs, refugees, or terrorism.
He added that 90% of the drug trade has ceased, and that one million Syrian refugees have returned to their country, even though the reconstruction process hasn’t yet begun.
Sharaa warned that the failure of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) integration process before the end of the year could prompt Türkiye to take military action.
Sharaa confirmed that some factions within the SDF and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are obstructing the implementation of the agreements.
Sharaa rejected the SDF’s demands for decentralization, explaining that Syrian Law No. 107 already guarantees 90% administrative decentralization, and considering these demands to be nothing more than a cover for separatist tendencies.
Sharaa recalled his first meeting with Mazloum Abdi, when he told him, “If you came to demand Kurdish rights, then there’s no need… My principle is that Kurds are equal Syrian citizens, and I care more about their rights than you do”.
Sharaa indicated, that the March 10 agreement represented, for the first time, a path forward supported by the United States and Türkiye, but that some factions within the SDF and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) sought to obstruct it.
He explained that the SDF, which has ignored Abdullah Öcalan’s call to dissolve itself, has become a threat to national security in Türkiye and Iraq.
He noted that Ankara had previously refrained from launching military operations against the group in response to Syrian efforts, but he hinted that Türkiye’s patience may run out by the end of the year if integration doesn’t occur.
