Exclusive-UAE mediating secret talks between Israel and Syria, sources say

By Timour Azhari and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria, three people familiar with the matter said, 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 told Reuters 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. 

They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Syria's presidency and the UAE foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment. 

The mediation effort preceded Israeli strikes in Syria last week, including one just 500 metres (yards) from the presidential palace in Damascus, and Reuters could not establish if the mechanism has been used since the strikes occurred. 

Israel has framed the strikes as a message to Syria's new rulers in response to threats against Syria's Druze, a minority sect that is an offshoot of Islam with adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

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. They declined to elaborate. 

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, which participated in the October 7 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

A letter sent by Syria's foreign ministry to the U.S. State Department last month, seen by Reuters, 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 Lebanese 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 an Islamist militant presence in southern Syria. Israel has bombed what it says are military targets across the country and Israeli ground forces have entered southwestern Syria.

Reuters reported in February that Israel has lobbied the U.S. to keep Syria decentralised and isolated, framing its approach around suspicion of Sharaa - who once headed a branch of al-Qaeda before renouncing ties to the group in 2016.

The UAE government also has concerns about the Islamist bent of Syria's new leaders, but Sharaa's meeting with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan last month went very well, the sources said, helping to assuage some of Abu Dhabi's concerns.

The sources noted the meeting lasted several hours, making Sharaa late for a subsequent engagement. 

The backchannel with Israel was established days later, the sources said.  

Damascus sees the UAE's ties with Israel, established in a historic U.S.-brokered deal in 2020, as a key avenue to address issues with Israel, given the absence of direct relations between the two states. 

Israel's latest strikes in Syria followed days of clashes between Sunni Muslim and Druze gunmen triggered by a voice recording of unclear origin purportedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed, leaving more than two dozen people dead.

Syria's government has since reached an agreement with Druze factions in the Druze heartland region of Suweida to hire local security forces from their ranks, in a move that has so far reduced tensions. 

The fighting posed the latest challenge for Sharaa, who has repeatedly vowed to unite all of Syria's armed forces under one structure and govern the country, fractured by 14 years of civil war until Assad's overthrow.

But incidents of sectarian violence, notably the killing of hundreds of pro-Assad Alawites in March, have hardened fears among minority groups about the now-dominant Islamists and sparked condemnation from global powers.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Beirut and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai; Editing by William Maclean)