Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa said his government had engaged in indirect consultations with Israel to ease escalating tensions between the two countries, Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
The announcement comes after last week’s escalation of Israeli attacks on Syria, including a strike that landed just 500 meters (1,640 feet) from Damascus’ presidential palace on Friday.
Israel argued that the recent airstrikes are a response to what it described as a threat to the country’s minority communities.
“There will be indirect consultations with Israel through mediators, and in order to calmly and absorb the situation, we will try to ensure that both parties do not reach a level where they lose control,” Alshara said, reiterating Israel’s responsibility for what he described as a “random intervention” in Syria.
He also said that Damascus is speaking to communicate with Israel by “stop intervening in Syrian issues and putting pressure on them to bomb some of its infrastructure.”
There were no immediate comments from Israeli authorities.
Alshara’s remarks come during a groundbreaking visit to Paris, his first trip to the European country, after leading opposition fighters in a lightning strike that defeated longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
Al-Sharara remained under international sanctions, and due to his previous role as leader of the armed group Hayat Tahri Al-Sham (HTS), former al-Qaeda affiliate, visited the United Nations special exemption.
Lifting sanctions
Speaking in Paris after meeting President Emmanuel Macron at Elicie Palace, Alshara called for the lifting of Syria’s economic restrictions, saying “there is no justification for maintaining the sanctions imposed on the previous regime.”
Macron said the French president would consider gradually lifting European Union sanctions if Syria continues along its current path.