Navigating the Odds: Why Post-Assad Syria Is Chasing Diplomacy With Israel Amid Ongoing Hostilities

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani attends a joint news conference in Moscow, Russia, on July 31, 2025. Ever since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Syria has chosen diplomatic engagement with Israel over military confrontation as the new leadership attempts to rebuild the war-torn country. Despite a stated policy of avoiding conflicts with neighbors, Israel continues to disrupt peace efforts through repeated military attacks on Syrian soil. Analysts explain that Damascus views the diplomatic path as its only viable choice due to intense pragmatism aimed at serving national interests.

Under the al-Assad presidency, Syria was a key part of the Iran-driven "axis of resistance," serving as a transit route for weapons and financial aid to Hezbollah. However, the Syrian military had not directly engaged Israel militarily since a 1974 disengagement agreement signed under Hafez al-Assad. Following the ouster of the al-Assad government in December 2024 by rebels led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Israel immediately attacked Syrian military infrastructure and expanded its troop presence into southern Syria beyond the occupied Golan Heights.

While Syrian officials maintain they have no intent to attack Israel and seek regional peace, Israel has repeatedly threatened the government, bombed the Syrian Ministry of Defence in Damascus in July 2025, and harassed Syrian citizens. To counter these aggressions, Syria has sought international help, gaining the trust of Donald Trump’s administration alongside strong ties with Turkiye and Gulf states. Damascus hopes to leverage its pragmatism to remove Israel as a spoiler, though current leadership notes they do not yet view Israel as a reliable neighbor or trustworthy political partner, having filed multiple complaints with the United Nations.

Analyst Souhayb Jawhar noted that Damascus currently maintains three core demands: halting Israeli strikes, stopping incursions and arrests of Syrian citizens, and forcing a withdrawal from areas seized after the fall of al-Assad. While exhausted citizens desire stability over another war, Israeli actions with impunity continue to undermine support for normalization. Recently, Asaad al-Shaibani met with Roman Gofman, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, in US-mediated talks in Amman to establish mechanisms to halt attacks and revive security negotiations.

Looking ahead, geopolitical complexities remain high regarding the disputed Golan Heights and potential future tensions involving Turkiye. Although US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack proposed a deconfliction mechanism including Turkiye, Syria, and Israel, analysts remain skeptical that a genuine peace agreement will emerge soon given the current Israeli leadership's preference for military means over political processes.