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The United States is holding preliminary discussions with Syria and Israel on a potential security agreement between the longtime adversaries, Axios reported Monday, citing U.S. and Israeli officials.
While the talks do not yet amount to formal normalization, officials say they could lay the foundation for future diplomacy. The discussions reportedly focus on reducing tensions and revising security arrangements along the Israel-Syria border.
A senior Israeli official told Axios that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently conveyed to U.S. envoy Tom Barrack his interest in updating the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria’s new transitional government.
The talks are reportedly being quietly brokered by Washington following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the rise of President Ahmad al-Sharaa in January.
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“We are having very soft preliminary discussions,” a U.S. official told Axios. “Diplomatic breakthroughs are like unwrapping an onion—we are peeling,” the official said.
Negotiations are said to be taking place through four distinct channels, including national security and intelligence contacts. Israel views its current control of strategic territory in southern Syria—including parts of the buffer zone and Mount Hermon—as leverage in any agreement. Officials emphasized that any withdrawal would only occur in exchange for full peace and normalization.
The White House announced Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to terminate American sanctions on Syria later in the day, a move widely interpreted as a signal of support for the transitional government in Damascus.
Speaking to reporters at the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move aims to support Syria’s “path to stability and peace.”
"The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former President Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies," she added.
In May, Trump announced at an investment forum in Riyadh that he would lift the “brutal and crippling” sanctions on Syria. A day later, he held a landmark meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia—the first meeting between U.S. and Syrian leaders in 25 years.
Trump on Sunday also said several countries had expressed interest in joining the Abraham Accords—U.S.-brokered agreements normalizing ties between Israel and Arab states. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco signed the accords beginning in 2020.
Israel has occupied most of Syria’s Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. After Assad’s fall in December 2024, Israel expanded its presence into the Syrian buffer zone and declared the 1974 disengagement accord defunct.
Assad, who led Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia as his regime collapsed, ending Baath Party rule that had lasted since 1963. Syria’s transitional administration, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, was established in January.
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