Will Israel seize opportunity for rapprochement with Syria?
Signs indicate that Israel might have a rare opportunity to hold productive dialogue with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and advance a security deal with Damascus.
TEL AVIV — A leading Syrian activist and businessman told Israeli lawmakers in Jerusalem this week that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa views the ongoing US-mediated and direct discussions with Israel as a rare opportunity.
Speaking at the launch of a Knesset lobby devoted to advancing regional peace, Shadi Martini, a former Syrian hospital director who fled his country during the civil war there, said he had met Sharaa at the presidential palace in Damascus some two weeks ago.
“One thing that stuck with me that President al-Sharaa said was, ‘We only have these opportunities one time every 100 years. It’s a very unique opportunity, but the window will not always stay open.'”
Martini, executive director of the US-based human rights Multifaith Alliance, was accompanied to the Damascus meeting by a priest and a rabbi. The meeting with Sharaa lasted two hours, running over schedule. “The topic of Israel was dominant,” he said.
