Syria’s Sharaa rules out joining Abraham Accords, suggests Trump could make negotiations happen msn.com

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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a Monday interview with Fox News that Syria would not at this time enter into talks to join the Abraham Accords, but that perhaps US President Donald Trump’s administration would help in making such negotiations possible.

Sharaa cited Israel’s “occupation” of the Golan Heights as a reason Syria would not enter such talks.

“I believe that this situation in Syria is different from the situation of the countries that went on with the Abrahamic agreement,” Sharaa told Fox’s Gillian Turner. “Syria has borders with Israel, and Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967. We are not going to enter into a negotiation directly right now.”

Sharaa’s answer came after Gillian noted that “Trump would like Syria to join the Abraham Accords.” She then asked whether Sharaa agreed with the accords’ “foundational principle,” which is that Israel had “the right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state.”

While Sharaa stated that Syria would not enter talks to join the accords at this time, he floated the possibility that “maybe the United States administration, with President Trump, will help us reach this kind of negotiation.”

Sharaa’s nom de guerre while active in terror organizations, including al-Qaeda and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, was “al-Jolani,” honoring his parents, who were residents of the Golan Heights until 1967, when they fled due to the Six-Day War. Sharaa was born in Saudi Arabia.

Israel-Syria agreement to be achieved before year's end, Syrian official believes
His interview with Fox followed a historic meeting between the Syrian president and Trump at the White House. The event was the first such visit by a Syrian leader. Israel and Syria are expected to come to several security and military agreements by the end of 2025, a Syrian official told Agence France-Presse in September.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also confirmed that negotiations are underway on September 24.

The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.

The US plans for the presence in the Syrian capital, which have not previously been reported, would be a sign of Syria’s strategic realignment with the US following the fall last year of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran.

The base sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria that are expected to make up a demilitarized zone as part of a non-aggression pact between Israel and Syria mediated by the Trump administration.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani warned that, in his view, Israel is “pursuing expansionist projects, exploiting recent changes in Syria, and destabilizing the region,” during an interview with state-run Al Ekhbariyah TV in October.

“Israel wanted to impose a new reality and an expansionist project, exploiting the change that took place in Syria,” he said.

He also affirmed his view that Israel’s actions are reinforcing Syria’s instability.

His comments came amid the clashes in southern Syria between Bedouin and Druze populations, with Israel assisting the Druze with military strikes.