Syria offers deal to Israel in exchange for US sanctions relief – report

President Ahmed al-Sharaa also put on the table American access to Syrian oil and gas deposits.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Syria is offering rapprochement with Israel as part of a deal to obtain U.S. sanctions relief, Reuters reported Monday.

“A key aim of Syria’s overtures to Washington is communicating that it poses no threat to Israel,” the report said.

The IDF took over the entire demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria as soon as the Islamist group headed by now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa took over the country in December.

Jerusalem has declared that its occupation is necessary to ensure Israel’s safety and that it will last as long as necessary.

Israel has also since struck at myriad targets in the country, including forces threatening Syrian Druze communities after a massacre took place following false claims that a Druze religious figure had blasphemed Islam.

Israel’s loyal Druze community has been pressuring the government to do even more to help their Syrian brethren.

Syrian authorities have repeatedly charged that Israel’s moves are escalating tensions in the region.

Last week, al-Sharaa told journalists in Paris that the two enemies have begun talking to each other about the issues of concern.

“There are indirect negotiations (with Israel) via mediators to calm and contain the situation so matters don’t reach a point where both sides lose control,” he said. “We are trying to speak to all the countries that are in contact with the Israeli side to pressure them to stop interfering in Syrian affairs.”

Al-Sharaa’s offer also included the possibility of granting American companies access to Syrian oil and gas deposits, the news agency said, and even reportedly offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus.

All the proposals are meant to entice President Donald Trump to rescind the harshest of the American sanctions that are holding Syria back from rejoining the world economy and having a fighting chance to rebuild financially after over a decade of civil war.

In the very short term, Reuters reported, al-Sharaa would like the publication of these offers to result in a meeting with Trump during his Middle East trip this week.

While considered possible, most pundits believe such a meeting is unlikely, although one source told the news agency that other high-level officials from the two countries could very well talk on the sidelines of the official meetings.

Despite the fact that al-Sharaa is still a U.S.-designated terrorist, as is his Islamist HTS group, senior American officials met just last month with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in New York.

Soon after the coup, the U.S. dropped the $10 million reward it had long offered for information leading to al-Sharaa’s arrest.

Jonathan Bass, the CEO of an American natural gas company who met two weeks ago with the Syrian leader, told Reuters that “Sharaa wants a business deal for the future of his country.”

“He wants peace with his neighbors,” he added. “What he told me is good for the region, good for Israel.”