A Third Peace Deal in the Works?
After signing the Abraham Accords, normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, earlier this month, Israel may already be making progress on another such deal. The London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that Israel and Syria have engaged in secret negotiations and are working toward an agreement similar to Israel’s recent deals. Though it is an ally of Iran, which vehemently condemned the Abraham Accords, Syria did not publicly oppose the action at all, which was interpreted by some as a pro-Israel stance. Israel and Syria have held negotiations in the past, most recently in 2008 as well as in 2000. These meetings were intended to help pull Syria out of isolation. But Syria has also been hostile toward Israel historically. It has never recognized the State of Israel and has threatened to attack Israel unless it withdraws from the Golan Heights, according to worldisraelnews.com.
While this seems to be more speculation than fact based on the lack of hard proof, what we know certainly does suggest that Israel and Syria are working toward normalization. Any nation seeking to be an ally of Israel is a great victory for the Jewish state, but an alliance with Syria in particular would be shocking and incredible. The two nations have been in a state of war for almost all of modern Israel’s history. Syria fought against Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967 Six-Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 and continues today might be contributing to the nation’s softened stance on Israel, Israel Hayom suggests. This could be yet another great step forward toward more peace for Israel, a move we should welcome with open arms.
