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The longtime enemies have opened contacts, reflecting a power shift across a Middle East in which they have newfound common ground: antipathy for Iran.
July 9, 2025Updated 5:46 a.m. ET
Syria and Israel have been locked in a state of hostility for decades, but the new authorities in Damascus are taking a different tack with their neighbor to the south.
Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Shara, is using diplomatic channels and engaging in indirect discussions with Israel, which the United States has helped mediate, to resolve problems along the border, according to Syrian, Israeli and American officials. The two countries have kept up contact even as the Israeli military has carried out incursions into southern Syria that raised fears of a prolonged occupation.
While the goals appear modest, these are the most serious talks between them in more than a decade and a departure from the former government’s animosity toward Israel. The negotiations reflect a power shift across the Middle East, where Israel and Syria now find they have common ground.
Both share an antipathy toward Iran, which was a close ally of the deposed Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, during his 13-year civil war against an array of Syrian rebel groups. Mr. al-Shara led an alliance of some of those rebel groups that overthrew Mr. al-Assad in December.
Israel and the new Syrian leadership also share security concerns about Iran-backed proxy groups, which they want to prevent from infiltrating Syria. And both Mr. al-Shara and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have found an ally in President Trump.
The United States has helped broker the back-channel discussions between the two countries, according to Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Mr. Trump’s envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey. He has called for Israel and Syria to begin repairing their relations by signing a nonaggression pact.
