NEW YORK — Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said negotiations between Syria and Israel had reached nearly 90% agreement on a security framework before Israel pulled back or introduced additional conditions.“There were several sessions of negotiations with Israel, and we almost reached 90% of agreements,” Al-Sharaa said Tuesday during an Atlantic Council event in New York.He said Israel subsequently withdrew from the agreement for “different reasons,” but stressed that negotiations were continuing.“Since the fall of the former regime, Israel is repeating its attacks and aggressions against Syria. It is occupying new territories,” Al-Sharaa said, accusing Israel of continuing incursions, arrests and airstrikes inside Syria.Despite those developments, he said Damascus had chosen to pursue diplomacy and negotiations.“We are still engaging in this track,” Al-Sharaa said. “But we need to protect the security and the rights of the Syrians. Before that, we can’t talk about peace.”Al-Sharaa said direct negotiations with Israel began about a year ago, with US involvement, and that Damascus had demanded Israel withdraw to the positions associated with the 1974 disengagement arrangement before moving forward with security arrangements.“If those arrangements succeeded, then we can get into discussions about lasting peace,” he said.Al-Sharaa maintained that the occupied Golan Heights are Syrian territory and said their status was not open for negotiation.“The Golan Heights is Syrian territory under the recognition of the United Nations,” he said. “So there is no discussion about that territory and to whom it belongs.”He also proposed establishing an international committee to assess Israel’s security concerns and determine which represented genuine threats and which were based on perceptions.Addressing US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Al-Sharaa recalled joking with Trump about the issue during a meeting at the White House.“Why don’t you give New Jersey to the Israelis? You don’t own the Golan Heights to give it to them, but you own New Jersey,” Al-Sharaa recalled telling Trump.Al-Sharaa visited the White House last November, becoming the first Syrian head of state to do so since the country gained independence in 1946. He had previously met Trump in Riyadh in May 2025.Turning to foreign military forces in Syria, Al-Sharaa said the number of Russian bases had fallen from around 170 to two, which he said had been transformed into training bases for the Syrian military.He also said Türkiye’s military bases in northwestern Syria were moving toward a legal status with the endorsement of the People’s Assembly.Asked by Brett McGurk, former Middle East coordinator under US President Joe Biden, about the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Sharaa distanced himself from the attacks.“I had nothing to do with that. At the time, I was 13 years old,” he said.Al-Sharaa expressed sorrow for those killed in the United States as well as victims in the Middle East, adding: “We are completely disengaged from what happened then.”
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