Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria and Israel had nearly reached 90% agreement in negotiations on a security framework before Israel pulled back or introduced additional conditions.
“There were several sessions of negotiations with Israel, and we almost reached a 90% agreement,” Sharaa said Tuesday at an Atlantic Council panel in New York, adding that Israel then withdrew from the agreement for “different reasons.”
“Since the fall of the former regime, Israel is repeating its attacks and aggressions against Syria. It is occupying new territories,” he said, adding that Israel continues to carry out incursions, arrests and bombings inside Syria.
“Syria still chose to go through diplomacy and to solve that problem through talk and negotiations,” he added.
“We are still engaging in this track,” Sharaa said, “but we need to protect the security and the rights of the Syrians. Before that, we can’t talk about peace.”
Sharaa said direct talks with Israel began around a year ago, with Damascus first demanding that Israel withdraw to the lines it held in 1974 before any discussion of security arrangements.
“If those arrangements succeeded, then we can get into discussions about lasting peace,” he said.
“The Golan Heights is Syrian territory under the recognition of the United Nations,” Sharaa said. “So there is no discussion about that territory and to whom it belongs.”
A view of the area around Tel al-Ahmar in Syria’s Quneitra countryside, where a raid and infiltration by the Israeli army were reported, with around 30 Israeli military vehicles deployed in the area from morning until evening the previous day on September 15, 2026. (AA Photo)
Damascus demands Israeli withdrawal
Southwestern Syria has seen repeated Israeli incursions involving raids, arrests, land clearing and shelling, which Damascus denounces as violations of its sovereignty and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
Syria has repeatedly demanded that Israeli forces leave its territory, calling on the international community to press Israel toward a full pullout from the south.
Despite the Syrian government posing no threat to Israel, Israeli forces have repeatedly carried out incursions into Syria and launched airstrikes that have killed civilians and destroyed military sites, vehicles, weapons and ammunition belonging to the Syrian army.
Southern Syria has witnessed repeated Israeli incursions since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, 2024, when Israel announced the collapse of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and occupied the Syrian buffer zone and other areas.
Damascus demands that Tel Aviv withdraw to the lines held before Dec. 8, 2024, and has reaffirmed its commitment to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement.
An infographic titled “A series of “mysterious explosions” at five ammunition depots across Syria this month” created in Ankara, Türkiye on September 22, 2026. (AA Graphics)
Sharaa also proposed an international committee to assess Israel’s security concerns and “verify what is only a perception and what are genuine concerns.”
Responding to an audience question on the Trump administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Sharaa recalled a joke he said he’d made to U.S. President Donald Trump during a White House meeting.
“Why don’t you give New Jersey to the Israelis? You don’t own the Golan Heights to give it to them, but you own New Jersey?” Sharaa said.
Sharaa visited the White House last November, the first visit by a Syrian head of state since the country’s independence in 1946.
He previously met Trump in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in May 2025, shortly before Washington lifted Caesar sanctions.
Sharaa says Russian bases reduced
Asked about foreign military presence in Syria, Sharaa said Russia’s bases in the country had decreased from around 170 to two, which he said had been “transformed” into training bases for the Syrian army.
He said Türkiye’s bases in the northwest were also moving toward “a legal status” under the endorsement of the People’s Assembly.
Brett McGurk, former U.S. President Joe Biden’s Middle East coordinator, asked Sharaa about the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I had nothing to do with that. At the time, I was 13 years old,” Sharaa replied.
“Of course, I am sorry for all the victims who perished in the United States, or those who had fallen in the Middle East because of the policies that were pursued there that victimized a lot of people,” he said.
“We are completely disengaged from what happened then,” Sharaa added.
September 23, 2026 10:06 AM GMT+03:00