The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Syria’s Assad agrees to normalise relations with Israel if conditions are met

People wave Syrian national flags and pictures of President Bashar Al-Assad as they gather for a demonstration in support of Assad and against US sanctions on the country in Damascus on 11 June 2020 [LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images]
Syrian regime President, Bashar Al-Assad, said in an interview with a Russian news agency that he is not against the idea of establishing “normal relations” with the occupation, but only if certain conditions are met.

Al-Assad said that in order to hold Syrian-Israeli negotiations, it is imperative to “restore all Syrian land” occupied by Israel.

He continued in his interview with Sputnik: “Our position has been very clear since the beginning of the peace talks in the 1990s, almost three decades ago, when we said that peace for Syria is correlated with regaining our rights.”

Al-Assad added: “We cannot hold normal relations with Israel until we restore our lands. The matter is very simple.”

He explained that “holding talks will be possible only when Israel is ready to return the occupied Syrian lands, but they never been ready, not now, not ever.”

Last year, US President Donald Trump recognised Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights that the occupation state seized from Syria in 1967. However, Israel’s annexation of the Golan has not been endorsed internationally.

 

Source: Syria’s Assad agrees to normalise relations with Israel if conditions are met – Middle East Monitor