Damascus’ partnership with Türkiye jeopardizes Israeli-Syrian talks

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria on December 8, 2024, has had groundbreaking repercussions on the Syrian landscape as well as the regional. One of its manifests was the initiation of direct negotiations with Israel, previously perceived a longtime “enemy.”

The lengthy discussions between the Syrian and Israeli delegations, which included government officials, have signaled some hope of a possible breakthrough, and eventually even a potential formal peace deal. However, as time has passed and developments unfolded, this objective seems to drift away, farther than anticipated.

Various Syrian officials revealed that talks with Syria have not gained any ground, but have rather stalled and slowed down. This comes following various recent developments that have plagued Israeli-Syrian relations instead of enhancing it. From here, two critical and contentious issues have caused such bitterness and aloofness: the Golan Heights dilemma and Syria’s relationship with Türkiye.

The Golan Heights dilemma

The issue of the Golan Heights is not new, but has rather spanned for around 58 years. It began with the Six Day war in 1967 when Israel launched a preemptive attack on Arab states, namely Syria and Egypt. After obliterating their air force and ensuring aerial superiority, Tel Aviv went on to secure a decisive and consequential victory by seizing significant Arab land: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem (from Palestine), the Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt) and the Golan Heights (from Syria).

Since then, Israel has not only taken control of the Golan Heights, but has sought to preserve its occupation. It began settlement construction in the late 1960s, and even annexed the region in 1981 by passing a controversial bill, dubbed Golan Heights Law. Tel Aviv’s move has been criticized and condemned regionally and internationally, with only the United States recognizing Israeli sovereignty on the region during Trump’s first term.

Today, as Israeli-Syrian talks began this year, the Golan Heights issue resurfaced once more. However, what Israelis thought would be a simple acceptance of its sovereignty on the region turned out to be a bumpy and uneasy road. An Israeli official claimed that Israel “had expected a breakthrough in the direct negotiations with Damascus in recent months, to the point where both sides believed they were close to signing a security agreement by the end of September,” however, “things changed when Arab media outlets began attacking Israel.” Tel Aviv accused Syria of initiating a “hostile campaign,” which is evident in the country’s Permanent Representative Ibrahim Alabi’s speech at the United Nations. The latter has continuously condemned “repeated military provocations, violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, and breaches of Syrian sovereignty,” referring to Israel’s military strikes on Damascus. As for the Golan Height, Alabi has called for Israel’s “withdraw from all Syrian lands, including the Golan Heights occupied since 1967, and the areas that have recently witnessed military incursions, and to stop interfering in Syria’s internal affairs,” claiming that the region “will remain Arab and Syrian, an inseparable part of our sovereign land, and will never be subject to bargaining or concession.”

These demands have been rejected by Tel Aviv, which a senior official asserting that it “will not cede even a single centimeter of the Golan, nor withdraw from its military positions inside Syrian territory as long as those positions are essential to Israel’s security.”

Joint Syrian-Turkish hostility towards Israel

The strained Syrian-Israeli talks are not merely caused by a purely Syrian conviction. Israel believes that Ankara has a crucial part in this alleged hostility.

Tel Aviv has accused this campaign “is being directly supported by Ankara, which is seen as the main patron of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, as part of its quiet confrontation with Israel over influence inside Syria.” It believed that “the Syrian-Turkish move against Israel contradicts the ongoing discussions between Damascus and Tel Aviv over possible security arrangements.”

Syria’s new interim authorities, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, have had close relations with Ankara prior to as well as following the toppling of the Assad regime; although this was not always the case in previous years (as HTS and formerly Jabhat al-Nusra rejected cooperating with the Turks given their alliance with western NATO as well as its failure to adhere to strict Islamic Salafi rule). This partnership has grabbed Tel Aviv’s attention, raising concerns of Türkiye’s growing influence in Syria and the region.

Despite the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement in 2021, relations have quickly deteriorated during the 2023 Gaza War. Ankara’s backing of Hamas and Palestinians as well as its severe criticism of Israel’s actions and policies have strained their relationship once more. On the one hand, Türkiye has accused Tel Aviv of establishing a Jewish settlement as a base for its operations on the Republic of Cyprus (Northern Cyprus), while Israel accused Ankara of trying to establish a foothold in Gaza via its potential participation in the proposed international force. Likewise, Israel sees growing Turkish influence in Syria as a strategic threat to its security and regional ambitions, which is manifested by Damascus’ alleged bold rejection of handing over the Golan Heights.