On Tuesday January 6th, the fifth round of US mediated negotiations between Syrian and Israeli officials concluded in Paris with a historic proposal to establish a jointly-administered and demilitarized economic zone on the Syrian-Israeli border. Led by U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, in addition to President Trump’s advisors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the talks indicated significant progress after the deadlock that Syrian-Israeli negotiations had, until recently, hit. Following the talks, the US State Department released an official memo that was co-authored by the Israeli and Syrian governments and that detailed the major points of the negotiations. According to the memo, the talks emphasized “respect for Syria’s sovereignty,” “Israel’s security” and “prosperity for both countries.”
While the these goals may appear general and vague, the memo explicitly referenced a concrete method for implementing the negotiations’ objectives: a “joint fusion mechanism” between the two sides, one that would work as a “dedicated communication cell” that would open opportunities for Syrian-Israeli military coordination and facilitate the sharing of military intelligence between the Syrian and Israeli governments. In turn, increased coordination and the transparency of information on the Syrian-Israeli border would contribute to “military de-escalation,” “diplomatic engagement,” and the creation of US-sponsored economic and “commercial opportunities.”
Though the outcomes of this latest round of Syrian-Israeli negotiations remain undetermined, and though the concrete details of the arrangement between the two sides remain un-publicized, the significance and scale of these talks cannot be denied. First, talks of a jointly-administered economic zone went beyond the initial intent of producing a Syrian-Israeli security agreement, one that replaces the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that fell apart in the wake of the Assad Regime’s fall in December 2024. Rather, the emphasis on economic and diplomatic coordination, in addition to the exchange of military intelligence, opens a path not only for the de-militarization of the Syrian-Israeli border but for the normalization of political and economic relations between the two countries. This is not to say that normalization is a formally-stated goal of these negotiations. Nor is it a certain outcome. It is to say that the proposal that was formulated in these talks has brought the Syrian and Israeli governments the closest that they have been to each other. Even in the event that none of the goals of the proposal are reached, the Paris talks remain historic insofar as they represent the beginning of an unprecedented reality of Syrian-Israeli diplomatic engagement.
Second, and what is also noteworthy about this fifth round of Syrian-Israeli negotiations is the spirit of transparency with which they were undertaken. In addition to the formal and joint statement published by the US State Department, both the US envoy Tom Barrack and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office posted about the talks on their respective X accounts, with both expressing a sense of optimism. In contrast, the Syrian government has not yet released any formal or informal statement on the outcomes of the negotiations. And while SANA (The Syrian Arab News Agency) has maintained limited coverage of the talks, it has not published on their conclusion, but only commented on the need to restore Syrian “national rights” and sovereignty. As such, and while the talks and their development have been generally transparent to global and Israeli domestic audiences, there remains a notable lack of transparency between the Syrian government and its domestic audiences.
Omar Safadi is an Affiliate Fellow and Senior Editor at Tukhum Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and is an expert on civil war and geopolitics in the Middle East.
