Trump-backed push brings Jolani regime, Israel closer to deal: Israeli media

The Israeli regime and Syria’s self-appointed new officials have made “significant progress” towards a so-called “security agreement” that could be signed in the near term, Israeli media report.

A source close to Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led regime in the Arab country, told the Israeli regime’s i24 News on Thursday that the agreement would include a diplomatic annex and credited US President Donald Trump with facilitating progress toward the deal.

According to the report, the agreement is expected to be signed at a summit to be held in an undisclosed European country.

The source did not rule out the possibility that Jolani could sign the agreement directly with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The regime led by Jolani, who previously led Daesh and al-Qaeda Takfiri terrorists in Syria, overthrew the country’s democratically-elected government of President Bashar al-Assad last year, amid intense Israeli strikes targeting the nation’s civilian and defensive infrastructures.

Following the government’s ouster, Netanyahu publicly took credit for developments in Syria. Israeli forces soon moved to occupy additional Syrian territory, including the strategic Mount Hermon, and carried out hundreds of additional airstrikes across the country, continuing to target military bases and advanced weapons. Israeli troops have also conducted repeated incursions into the southern Syrian regions of Quneitra and Dara’a.

Syria’s new forces have not confronted Israeli troops occupying Syrian territory. Instead, they have focused their operations inside the country, including actions against minority religious and ethnic communities.

In March, Jolani’s forces carried out massacres of Alawite civilians, followed by attacks on Druze civilians in July. In recent days, Syrian forces have also conducted attacks in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah in Aleppo.

The Israeli regime occupied the Syrian Golan Heights during a Western-backed war against regional territories in 1967. A 1974 armistice agreement established a demilitarized zone along the frontline.

Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani has said the new officials were expected to sign a “security agreement” with Tel Aviv by the end of the year “based on that armistice.”

The regime, however, has refused to fully withdraw from territory it occupied following Assad’s fall.

Israeli sources told i24 that Tel Aviv would withdraw from some of the nine positions it currently holds inside Syria only in exchange for a full “peace agreement,” not merely a “security arrangement.” Such an agreement would require Syria to formally relinquish its claim to the occupied Golan Heights.

The reported progress towards a deal came amid extremely limited domestic support in Syria for normalization with the regime.

A nationwide poll published earlier this month found that only 14 percent of Syrians supported full normalization, while just four percent view the regime favorably. The survey, conducted through in-person interviews with 1,229 adults, showed strong opposition among Alawite, Druze, and Christian minorities, who reported fear and insecurity under the new regime in Syria.

The poll also found that 92 percent of respondents viewed Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and Tel Aviv’s military aggression in the region as major security threats.

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