Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday that President Donald Trump supports Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan Heights as part of ongoing negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem. The statement followed al-Sharaa’s historic meeting with Trump in Washington.
“The United States is with us in these negotiations, and so many international parties support our perspective in this regard,” he said. “Today, we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”
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Al-Sharaa reviewed decades of conflict between the two countries, noting that Syria first went to war with Israel half a century ago. The 1974 disengagement arrangement endured for five decades until the collapse of the Assad regime. “Israel revoked the agreement,” he said, expanded inside Syria, removed the UN peacekeeping mission, and seized new territory.
According to al-Sharaa, Israel has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes in Syria since early December, targeting military and government sites including the presidential palace and the Ministry of Defense. “Because we want to rebuild Syria, we didn’t respond to these aggressions,” he told The Washington Post, accusing Israel of acting out of “expansionist ambitions” rather than security concerns.
Addressing Israel’s stated fear of Iranian and Hezbollah threats, al-Sharaa said that “we are the ones who expelled those forces from Syria.” He rejected the idea of fully demilitarizing areas south of Damascus, arguing that such a move would invite chaos. “If this demilitarized zone was used by some parties as a launching pad for hitting Israel, who is going to be responsible for that?” he asked. “At the end of the day, this is Syrian territory, and Syria should have the freedom of dealing with its own territory.”
The president warned that Israel’s current posture could lead to deeper incursions. “They took the Golan Heights to protect Israel; now they impose conditions in the south to protect the Golan Heights,” he said. “They’ll reach Munich on this pathway.”