Syria's HTS officials visited Israel for normalization: Report
A delegation from the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led administration in Syria has reportedly made a secret visit to the occupied territories to hold direct talks with Israeli officials after HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani signaled readiness to normalize ties with Israel.
Citing Syrian sources, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday that officials from Syria’s Quneitra province and one senior defense official secretly visited the occupied territories for several days at the end of April to meet with Israeli military officials.
That came as Reuters reported that the UAE had facilitated a backchannel between Syrian and Israeli officials.
Al-Jolani also confirmed what he termed as “indirect” negotiations with the Israeli regime.
According to Reuters, the talks were focused on security and intelligence issues and confidence-building between the two sides.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter, cited by Reuters, described the effort as currently focused on technical matters and that there was no limit to what issues may eventually be discussed.
Al-Jolani has recently expressed readiness to normalize ties between Syria and Israel amid Washington’s plans to revoke anti-Damascus sanctions and Israel’s occupation of more Syrian land.
The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militant group, a former branch of al-Qaeda, along with other militants, seized control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, forcing Assad, a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, to leave the country.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently described how the Israeli military helped the HTS takeover of Syria in December.
Since Assad was toppled, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syria and occupied large swathes of territory in the country, in addition to the Golan Heights, which it occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967.
