Syria's Ahmad Al Shara says Israel talks could bring results 'in coming days'

Negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could bring results “in the coming days”, Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara has said.

He told reporters in Damascus the pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity, and be monitored by the UN.

Syria and Israel are in discussions that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli air strikes and the withdrawal of troops that have pushed into the south of the country.

Mr Al Shara, in a briefing with journalists before a trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, said the US was mediating the talks but not pressuring Syria to sign a deal.

Syria's top diplomat Asaad Al Shibani arrived in Washington on Thursday, state media said, in the first visit by a Syrian foreign minister to the US capital in more than 25 years.

He met with US senator Lindsey Graham and officials from the US Treasury for talks on the removal of remaining American sanctions and other ways to reconnect Syria to the global economy.

Mr Graham earlier told Axios he would support sanctions relief if Damascus made progress on the Israeli security deal and joined a coalition against ISIS.

President Al Shara said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since December 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad.

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Mr Al Shara said Israel’s actions were contradictory to the American policy of a stable and unified Syria, and were “very dangerous”.

He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarised zone between the two countries.

Mr Al Shara added that Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after December 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have said that Israel intends to keep control of the sites.

If the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached, Mr Al Shara said. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalisation deal like the Abraham Accords was not currently on the table.

He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights because it was “a big deal”.

“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Mr Al Shara told reporters.

He also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.

Syrian troops were sent to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel launching air strikes in the province, plus at the Defence Ministry and presidential palace in Damascus.

Mr Al Shara on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war”, and said Syria had refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.