Muslim scholar criticizes US effort to broker Israel-Syria rapprochement as ‘coerced normalization’

Netanyahu is considering the option of US-brokered negotiations with Syria’s new leadership.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In response to America’s Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea’s encouraging the new leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to begin negotiations towards a nonaggression pact with Israel, several Muslim scholars and commentators consider the move presumptuous, with one professor describing it as “coerced normalization.”

Shea spoke about the effort towards a pact between Syria and Israel from the platform of the UN Security Council.

Al-Sharaa’s high-profile meeting with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia on May 14, followed by Washington’s decision to lift sanctions on Damascus, marked a turning point.

Since then, the two parties have shifted from indirect communication through intermediaries to holding direct talks in neutral venues.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering the option of US-brokered negotiations with Syria’s new leadership, according to a report by the Axios news site, which cited two Israeli officials with knowledge of the discussions.

This move represents Israel’s first sign of diplomatic engagement with Damascus since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

The report states that Netanyahu brought up the possibility of talks during a recent meeting in Jerusalem with Tom Barrack, the US Envoy to Syria.

Meanwhile, Washington has praised the new Syrian government for taking steps such as dismantling its chemical weapons stockpiles, but the Trump administration has repeatedly requested that it move towards normalization with Israel and expel Palestinian factions from Syria.

Dr. Samir Al-Ali, an Istanbul-based former professor of international relations at Damascus University, told The Media Line news service that current US proposals “reflect not a genuine peace process but an effort to normalize occupation.”

“International law is clear — the Golan is occupied territory,” he said. “Pushing for a nonaggression pact while Israeli troops are deployed miles deep inside Syrian territory amounts to nothing more than coerced normalization.”

The annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981, after the territory was won by Israel from Syria in 1967, was recognized by President Trump in March 2019.

A senior official from Syria’s Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “the transitional government is open to all diplomatic initiatives, including ceasefire talks and border discussions, but only within the framework of Syrian sovereignty and international law.”