Exclusive-Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security, sources say

By Timour Azhari and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have in recent weeks held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region between the two longtime foes, five people familiar with the matter said.

The contacts mark a significant development in ties between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decades, as the U.S. encourages the new Islamist rulers in Damascus to establish relations with Israel and Israel eases its bombardment of Syria.

They also build on back-channel talks via intermediaries since Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad in December, said two Syrian and two Western sources, as well as a regional intelligence source familiar with the matter.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject for two nations with no official ties and a history of enmity. The direct talks and their scope have not been previously reported.

On the Syrian side, the sources said contacts have been led by senior security official Ahmad al-Dalati, who was appointed governor of the province of Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after the fall of Assad. Earlier this week, Dalati was also put in charge of security in the southern province of Sweida, home to Syria's Druze minority.

Reuters could not determine who participated on Israel's side, though two of the sources said they were security officials.

Three of the sources said there had been several rounds of in-person meetings in the border region, including in territory controlled by Israel.

Israel's foreign ministry and Syrian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed indirect talks with Israel that he said were aimed at calming tensions, a striking admission that followed a Reuters report that the UAE was mediating such talks.

Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and took more territory in the aftermath of Assad's ouster in December, citing lingering concerns over the extremist past of the country's new rulers.

It has also waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that destroyed much of the country's military infrastructure, while at the same time lobbying Washington to keep the country weak and decentralized.

But the bombing and the criticism have subsided in recent weeks.

On May 14, a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Sharaa in Riyadh upended decades of U.S. Syria policy, and signalled to Israel's right-wing government that it should work to reach understandings with Sharaa.

The regional intelligence source described Trump's engagement with Sharaa as a pivotal part of a realignment in U.S. policy that upset Israel's post-Assad strategy of exploiting Syria's fragmentation.

BROADER UNDERSTANDINGS?

The relative calm in May has also seen a reduction in tensions around Sweida, which saw days of bloody clashes between Druze armed factions, some of which enjoy Israeli backing, and Sunni Muslim fighters last month.

Amid the violence, Israel had launched a series of airstrikes, including one just outside the presidential palace overlooking Damascus, which it framed as a warning over threats against the Druze, an offshoot of Islam with adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

While the direct talks are currently focused on joint security, such as preventing conflict and reducing Israeli incursions into Syrian border villages, two of the sources said they may help pave the way for broader political understandings.

"For now, they are about peace, as in the absence of war, rather than normalization," said the person familiar with backchannel talks.

Trump indicated after meeting Sharaa that the Syrian leader was willing to eventually normalize ties with Israel, while adding that it would take some time.

Sharaa has not commented on the statement, saying instead that he supported a return to the terms of a 1974 ceasefire agreement that created a U.N. buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Syria's new rulers have 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."

More recently, Syria's leadership has shown goodwill by approving the handover of a trove of long-dead Israeli master spy Eli Cohen's belongings.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Damascus and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by Aidan Lewis)