Syria’s HTS-led administration in ‘indirect’ talks with Israel: Jolani
The head of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led administration in Syria has confirmed “indirect” negotiations with the Israeli regime aiming to prevent, what he called, an uncontrollable explosion of the underway situation amid Tel Aviv’s incessant military aggression towards Syria.
Speaking at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani emphasized the urgency of the talks to avoid a scenario, where the situation would “spiral out of control.”
He also mentioned that the administration was reaching out to countries with established ties to the regime to ask the latter to stop the aggression.
Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the United Arab Emirates had established a backchannel to facilitate the indirect talks. Last month, Jolani had travelled to the emirates, which has formal ties Tel Aviv on the back of signing a United States-mediated agreement in 2020.
He called the regime’s military escalation in Syria a “violation” of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Damascus and Tel Aviv. The deal was signed after the latter’s seizing Syria’s Golan Heights during a Western-backed war seven years earlier.
Jolani said the HTS-led administration was committed to the agreement.
The HTS, which used to lead a fierce fight against the government of Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad, ran the Arab country over last year amid intense Israeli airstrikes against the nation’s civilian and defensive infrastructures.
Jolani later said his group sought no conflict with the Israeli regime, indicating determination on the part of the new officials in Syria not to pursue the former Syrian government’s steadfast opposition to the regime and its interminable atrocities across the West Asia region.
Also in April, Jolani expressed readiness for normalization of relations between the HTS-led administration and the regime.
