Syria’s HTS Officials Visited ‘Israel’ For Normalization

By Staff, Agencies

A delegation from the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham [HTS]-led administration in Syria has reportedly made a secret visit to the occupied territories to hold direct talks with "Israeli" officials after HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani signaled readiness to normalize ties with "Israel".

Citing Syrian sources, "Israel’s" Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday that officials from Syria’s Quneitra province and one senior defense official secretly visited the occupied territories for several days at the end of April to meet with "Israeli" military officials.

That came as Reuters reported that the UAE had facilitated a backchannel between Syrian and "Israeli" officials.

Al-Jolani also confirmed what he termed as “indirect” negotiations with the "Israeli" entity.

According to Reuters, the talks were focused on security and intelligence issues and confidence-building between the two sides.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter, cited by Reuters, described the effort as currently focused on technical matters and that there was no limit to what issues may eventually be discussed.

Al-Jolani has recently expressed readiness to normalize ties between Syria and "Israel" amid Washington's plans to revoke anti-Damascus sanctions and "Israel's" occupation of more Syrian land.