Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met with the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Roman Gofman, in Jordan on Sunday in high-level, US-mediated talks aimed at de-escalating tensions between the two countries. The meeting, hosted in Jordan and confirmed by Syria's state news agency SANA, brought together senior delegations from both sides — including the heads of Syria's general and military intelligence — just days after an Israeli airstrike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northwestern Idlib province that had pushed already-strained relations to a breaking point. Israel claimed the strike was intended to prevent Turkish forces from deploying at the base, a justification both Syria and Turkey denied. Israel's prime minister's office declined to comment on the talks.

According to SANA, discussions focused on establishing practical mechanisms to halt Israeli strikes, arrests and targeted operations in Syria, as well as reviving negotiations toward a broader security agreement. The talks also addressed efforts to prevent tensions between Israel and Turkey from spilling over onto Syrian soil — a growing concern for Damascus as the two regional powers trade barbs following the Idlib incident. Two sources familiar with the discussions told AFP that the two sides explored the possibility of establishing a dedicated operations room in Jordan, under American supervision, to prevent direct confrontations between Syrian, Israeli and Turkish forces.

The meeting comes against a backdrop of deep mistrust and stalled diplomacy. Al-Shaibani told Reuters on Saturday that Damascus did not fully trust Israel, accusing it of lacking genuine willingness to implement agreements already reached. He said the two sides had agreed on paper to "almost everything" at the start of the year — including security zones in southern Syria and a buffer zone where only UN forces would operate — but that talks froze when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. Syria had cut off contact entirely after the Abu al-Duhur strike. Syria's immediate demands remain an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and full restoration of a 1974 disengagement agreement. Damascus also reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights — a plateau Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed, a move recognised by Washington but not by most of the international community — while acknowledging that discussions over its final status were premature.

Israel, for its part, entered the talks with its own stated conditions, including keeping the Syrian side of the Golan demilitarised, preventing Turkey from establishing a military presence in Syria, guaranteeing the security of Syria's Druze minority community, and limiting what strategic weapons Damascus can acquire. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Syria since Assad's fall and has sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the Golan, with Israeli officials stating they have no intention of withdrawing from territory they currently occupy.

Analysts caution that a durable agreement remains elusive. The current round of talks is unlikely to produce a swift de-escalation, given the depth of the gaps between the two sides and Israel's track record of adding new demands as negotiations progress. For Syria's new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the stakes are particularly high: officials in Damascus fear their country is at risk of becoming a battleground for a broader Israeli-Turkish rivalry, further undermining efforts to consolidate authority and stability after years of devastating civil war. Washington, which has sought to broker a security agreement between the two sides for more than a year, continues to play the role of mediator, though the path toward any lasting arrangement remains uncertain.