CAIRO/BEIRUT: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday the country has had indirect talks with Israel to calm the situation as Israeli strikes continued to target Syria.

The United Arab Emirates has set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria, as Syria’s new rulers seek regional help to manage an increasingly hostile relationship with their southern neighbour.

The indirect contacts, which have not been previously reported, are focused on security and intelligence matters and confidence-building between two states with no official relations, a person with direct knowledge of the matter, a Syrian security source and a regional intelligence official said.

The first source described the effort, which began days after Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa visited the UAE on April 13, as currently focused on “technical matters,” and said there was no limit to what may eventually be discussed.

The senior Syrian security source said the backchannel was limited strictly to security-related issues, focusing on several counterterrorism files. The source said that purely military matters, particularly those concerning Israeli army activities in Syria, fell outside the scope of the current channel.

The intelligence source said UAE security officials, Syrian intelligence officials and former Israeli intelligence officials were involved in the mechanism, among others.

The mediation effort preceded Israeli strikes in Syria last week, including one just 500 metres from the presidential palace in Damascus. Israel has framed the strikes as a message to Syria’s new rulers in response to threats against Druze.

Informal mediation between Israel and Syria aimed at calming the situation has taken place in the last week via other channels, according to one of the sources and a regional diplomat.

Syria’s government has condemned Israel’s strikes as escalatory and as foreign interference, and says the new government in Damascus is working to unify the country after 14 years of bloodletting. The new rulers have also made repeated efforts to show they pose no threat to Israel, meeting representatives of the Jewish community in Damascus and abroad and detaining two senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A letter sent by Syria’s foreign ministry to the US State Department last month said “we will not allow Syria to become a source of threat to any party, including Israel.”

Minority fears

Israel has struck in Syria for years in a shadow campaign aimed at weakening Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, who grew their influence after entering the country’s civil war on the side of former President Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli military operations have escalated since rebels ousted Assad in December, saying it will not tolerate fighters presence in southern Syria. Israel has bombed what it says are military targets across the country and Israeli ground forces have entered southwestern Syria.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2025