Syrian and Israeli officials hold Paris talks to ease tensions

Sherif Tarek, Bloomberg News on Aug 20, 2025

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Syria’s top diplomat held U.S.-mediated talks with Israeli delegates in Paris, seeking to defuse tensions following a flare-up of sectarian violence that prompted Israel to strike its neighboring country last month.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest adviser on foreign policy, headed the Israeli delegation, the Jerusalem Post reported. He met Tuesday with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani.

Clashes erupted between the Druze community and Bedouin tribes in the southwestern province of Suwayda last month, leading President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to deploy forces seeking to restore order. But reports by independent monitors said government forces — most of whom, like Sharaa, belong to the country’s Sunni Muslim majority — instead sided with their co-religionists, the Bedouin and allied militias, to target the Druze.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited mass atrocities against Druze and retribution by Druze militias against Bedouin.

Israel responded to the violence — and a call for help from the Druze — with airstrikes in Suwayda and, at its most tense point, Syrian capital Damascus.

Discussions on Tuesday centered on ways to stabilize the region and southern Syria, according to state-run news agency Sana. The fragile ceasefire in Suwayda and the reactivation of 1974 disengagement treaty between the two countries — which don’t formally recognize each other — was part of talks, according to the outlet.

Under the treaty, a buffer zone was created and maintained by United Nations forces along the Golan Heights to separate troops from Israel and Syria. Israel occupied parts of the Golan plateau in 1967 from Syria and annexed that portion in 1981. The U.S. recognized the annexation during the first term of President Donald Trump but most of the world doesn’t.

The Israeli government extended its military reach inside Syria after President Bashar Assad’s overthrow in December, occupying the U.N.-patrolled separation zone. Israel’s officials say they aim to protect the country’s borders against any Islamist attacks after President Ahmed Al-Sharaa took over.

Sharaa is a former Al-Qaeda commander whose Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group led the ousting of Assad. He has distanced himself from extremist doctrines but is still treated with suspicion by Israel — and minorities in his own country.

The Syrian government has condemned Israel for intervening in its domestic affairs, one of the points of contention discussed during the Paris encounter, according to Sana.

In a separate meeting in Paris, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, met with U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack. Tarif asked for U.S. help in fully implementing the truce in Suwayda, as well as opening a corridor to the district, which is suffering from a shortage of food, water, electricity, and fuel, the Jerusalem Post reported.