Syria and Israel held talks in Jordan on Sunday to ease tensions between the two countries, according to Syria’s state news agency, days after Israel struck an air base in Syrian territory.
The talks, mediated by the United States, focused on creating mechanisms to stop Israeli operations on Syrian territory and on reviving talks about a security agreement between Syria and Israel, according to the news agency, SANA, citing an official at the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
The Syrian delegation was led by Asaad al-Shaibani, the foreign minister, and included the heads of Syria’s general intelligence and military intelligence agencies, SANA noted.
Israeli officials have not publicly commented on the talks and did not immediately respond to requests for further information.
The two sides also discussed efforts to prevent tensions between Turkey and Israel — both of which neighbor Syria — from spilling over into Syrian territory, SANA reported. The Israeli strikes on the Syrian air base last week followed a visit by a Turkish delegation to the airfield as part of discussions to rehabilitate the site, according to Syrian and Israeli officials.
The talks on Sunday were the latest sign that President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria was open to diplomacy with Israel, a stark departure from his predecessors, who maintained a decades-long hostility toward the country. Mr. al-Sharaa’s government first engaged with Israel in U.S.-brokered back-channel discussions last year — the first such talks in more than a decade.
That diplomatic track stalled after the American-Israeli war on Iran erupted this year.
So far, the discussions over the past year have not curbed Israel’s military activity in Syria since rebels led by Mr. al-Sharaa swept into the capital, Damascus, in 2024 and overthrew the Assad government.
The Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets in Syria; deployed forces deep into parts of the country’s south, near its border with Israel; and built military outposts and supporting infrastructure in Syrian territory near the Israeli border, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a nonprofit that tracks global conflict.
Israeli officials have defended the actions as necessary to ensure that hostile forces such as Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group; or the Islamic State, which remains active in Syria, cannot entrench themselves near Israel.
But in Syria, the military interventions have stoked fears that Israel is seeking to maintain a long-term military presence on Syrian territory and may expand operations beyond the southern border areas.
The Trump administration — a proponent of Syria’s new government — has pushed for discussions between the two countries and publicly called for Syria to join the Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab states during Mr. Trump’s first term. Syrian officials have shown no inclination to do so imminently, and the scope of the latest round of talks were more limited.
After Israel struck the air base in northwestern Syria last week, the government in Damascus said that the strikes were “an unjustified act of aggression, a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a dangerous escalation that threatens security and stability in the region.”
