Syria and Israel hold direct US-mediated talks in Jordan to ease military tensions

High-level talks in Amman

On 23 August 2026, Syrian and Israeli delegations held direct, United States-mediated discussions in the Jordanian capital of Amman to reduce military tensions. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani headed the Syrian delegation alongside the directors of the country's general intelligence and military intelligence directorates. The Israeli delegation featured Roman Gofman, the head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad. The session represented the first direct diplomatic contact between the two states in several months, resuming a dialogue channel that had been frozen following regional hostilities. The agenda focused on drafting mechanisms to halt Israeli airstrikes, detentions, and targeted military actions within Syrian territory.

Fallout from the Abu al-Duhur airbase strike

The diplomatic gathering followed an Israeli aerial bombardment on 18 August 2026 that struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase near Idlib in northern Syria. Prior to the attack, a Turkish delegation had visited the installation to evaluate rehabilitation plans for the site. Israeli officials stated they had warned Syrian and Turkish counterparts against deploying Turkish military units there and carried out the bombing as a warning. The strike provoked a sharp rhetorical confrontation between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Ankara denied maintaining any military deployment at the base. Damascus temporarily severed communication channels with Israel immediately after the bombing before agreeing to the talks in Jordan.

Proposed tripartite deconfliction mechanism

To prevent future clashes, negotiators discussed establishing a special operations room in Jordan under United States oversight. The coordination hub would include Syria, Israel, and Turkey to manage deconfliction and prevent their regional rivalries from spilling across Syrian territory. Israeli representatives stated they would not accept an entrenched Turkish military presence in Syria, maintaining readiness to conduct further operations if necessary. Syrian delegates countered that any bilateral framework must respect national territorial integrity, emphasizing that Syria retains the right to reconstruct its armed forces and choose foreign alliances. United States mediators pushed the tripartite mechanism to prevent further confrontations among their regional partners.

Broader security negotiations and territorial disputes

The Amman meeting builds upon diplomatic contacts initiated by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad on 8 December 2024. Technical state of war has existed between Syria and Israel since 1948, but United States officials have sought for over a year to broker a formal bilateral security compact. According to Shaibani, negotiators had agreed in principle around the start of 2026 to southern security zones and a buffer area staffed solely by United Nations peacekeepers, though talks stalled after the outbreak of the American-Israeli war on Iran. Syrian delegates reiterated their demand for Israeli forces to withdraw to pre-December 2024 lines and fully restore the 1974 disengagement agreement, while describing negotiations regarding the final status of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as premature. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project indicates that Israeli forces have conducted hundreds of strikes and established military outposts in southern Syria since late 2024.