RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Al Jazeera — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 2 sourcesx whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info By Justin Salhani Published On 31 Aug 2026 31 Aug 2026 Ever since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Syria has chosen diplomatic engagement with Israel over military confrontation.
As Syria’s new government attempts to rebuild the country after more than a decade of war, the country’s officials have committed themselves to a policy of avoiding conflicts with their neighbours.
Yet Israel continues to disrupt any efforts at a more sustained peace agreement, including through repeated attacks on Syrian soil. But analysts told Al Jazeera that despite these provocations, Damascus sees the diplomatic track as its only choice.
“Syria’s government is intensely pragmatic in that it’s willing to basically sit down and talk to and do deals with people as long as it promotes Syria’s national interest,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer on security studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.
Under the al-Assad presidency, Syria was a part of the Iran-driven “axis of resistance” that also included other allies of Tehran. Syrian territory was used to transport weapons and financial aid from Iran to Tehran’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah.
The Syrian military itself, however, has not engaged militarily with Israel since a 1974 disengagement agreement signed under Bashar’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.
When rebels led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa took Damascus and deposed the al-Assad government in December 2024, Israel instantly responded by attacking Syria’s military infrastructure around the country. Israeli troops also moved further into parts of southern Syria, beyond the occupied Golan Heights. Almost two years later, Israeli troops continue to set up checkpoints and harass and arrest Syrian citizens in these parts of the country.
Since then, Syrian officials, including President al-Sharaa, have said they have no intent to attack Israel and that they seek peace with all their neighbours. Still, Israel has threatened the Syrian government on numerous occasions, warning them not to deploy military troops in southern Syria and even bombing the Syrian Ministry of Defence in Damascus in July 2025.
“The government has to walk a tightrope as ever,” Geist Pinfold said. “There seems to be a feeling in Syria that Syrians are tired of war, they’re tired of conflict, they want stability, they want to be able to grow, they want to practise nation building.”
Damascus has responded to the numerous aggressions by seeking regional and international help. Syria’s new government has gained the trust of Donald Trump’s administration in the US and has close ties with Turkiye and numerous Gulf states. Continued Israeli aggressions and violations have not deterred Syria’s efforts at diplomacy either.
“The Syrian government is hoping that it can basically leverage its pragmatism to create stability in Syria by basically removing Israel as the key spoiler at the moment in contemporary post-Assad Syria,” Geist Pinfold said. “It hasn’t been able to do that so far simply because under the Netanyahu administration, Israel seems more willing to live by the sword.”
While Damascus has said it is committed to peace and diplomacy, it has also made clear it does not yet view Israel as a reliable neighbour. Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told the Reuters news agency: “We do not trust Israel currently.”
Syria has also filed multiple complaints with the United Nations regarding Israel.
“Damascus does not currently consider Israel a trustworthy political partner, but it views negotiations with it as a security necessity,” Souhayb Jawhar, a Lebanese analyst with Badil, a Beirut-based think tank, told Al Jazeera.
Jawhar said Damascus has three immediate demands, which include stopping Israeli strikes on Syrian territory, stopping Israeli incursions into Syrian territory and the arrests of Syrian citizens, and forcing Israel to withdraw its troops from the areas it seized after the fall of al-Assad.
“After years of war, Syrians are exhausted and certainly not interested in another war,” Bente Scheller, head of Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told Al Jazeera. “However, Israel acting with impunity in Syria creates hard feelings and undermines support for normalisation or even peace.”
Until now, Syria appears to believe that the alternative to diplomacy with Israel, even in the face of Israeli attacks, could be too costly, particularly for a country still rebuilding after several devastating years of war.
“[Diplomacy] is the least costly option for Damascus,” Jawhar said. “The Syrian leadership does not want to open a military front with Israel while it is rebuilding its army, state and economy. It is also counting on the United States to impose constraints on Israeli behaviour.”
Al-Shaibani met with Roman Gofman , the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, in US-mediated talks in Amman recently. Syria’s state media agency SANA said the talks “focused on establishing practical mechanisms to halt Israeli attacks, arrests and targeting operations” and “reviving negotiations for a lasting security agreement between the two sides”.
The talks came on the back of an Israeli attack on a Syrian airbase near Idlib , in northwest Syria, though the two sides had reportedly also met shortly before that attack. Analysts said the attacks were likely a message to Syria about efforts to rebuild their air force and to Turkiye, whose zone of influence extends across northern Syria.
But despite Israel’s belligerence, analysts said Syrians generally are supportive of the government’s efforts to avoid conflict and apply pressure on the Israelis via regional and international allies.
“There seems to be a popular appetite for Israel to basically go away and stop being a threat and stop being a spoiler,” Geist Pinfold said. “That does not mean that there’s a popular appetite, for example, for Syria to give ...
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.