No peace with Israel 'if rights of Syrians are usurped', Sharaa says

Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Wed, 09/23/2026 - 00:01 Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the Syrian president said areas occupied by Israel since 2024, as well as the Golan Heights, remain core concerns

Former US diplomat Brett McGurk, left, speaks to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in New York City on 22 September 2026 (Screengrab/YouTube) Off

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Tuesday that despite ongoing discussions with Israel, he could not entertain the notion of diplomatic relations while Israel carries out air strikes on his country and occupies his birthplace of the Golan Heights.

"Since the fall of the former regime, Israel is repeating its attacks and aggressions against Syria," Sharaa said at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

"It [Israel] is occupying new territories. There are territories that have been occupied after the 8th of December 2024," he said, speaking through a translator and referring to the day he led Syrian rebel factions into the capital, and former president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.

"Until today, it is doing incursions, arrests inside Syria, and bombing different locations in Syria. Syria still chose to go through diplomacy and to solve that problem through talk and negotiations, as well as seeking the help of countries that are friendly to Israel, including the United States," he added.

"However, things are not easy."

The Israelis, Sharaa said, will often "reach 90 percent" of a security agreement with Syria before suddenly withdrawing "for different reasons".

"We need to protect the security and the rights of the Syrians before we can talk about peace," he maintained. "We cannot talk about peace if the rights of Syrians are usurped."

US President Donald Trump - who has made no secret of admiring Sharaa - decided during his first term in office in 2018 to unilaterally recognise the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel. The move had long been on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wishlist.

'We cannot talk about peace if the rights of Syrians are usurped'

- Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrian President

The United Nations recognises the Golan as occupied Syrian territory.

"There is no discussion about those territories and to whom they belong," Sharaa said, adding that when he visited Trump at the White House last year, he suggested the president give away a US state instead of territory he doesn't own.

"I made a joke with him when he said the Golan Heights [is within] the sovereignty of Israel. I said why don't you give New Jersey to the Israelis? You don't own Golan Heights to give it to them, but you own New Jersey, and I believe that New Jersey is full of Democrats, and they are not voting for Trump. So it will be good to give it to the Israelis."

The story elicited laughter among the crowd.

"Maybe we need an international committee to discuss those concerns in order to verify what is only a perception [and] what is genuine concern" about the Golan Heights, Sharaa said.

"We don't want to always be under the umbrella or under the perception that we are talking about the concerns of Israel."

Syria can 'empower the Lebanese government'

Trump has in the past floated the idea of having Syrian forces help demilitarise Hezbollah in Lebanon, toward a Lebanon-Israel peace deal.

The matter appeared entirely a non-starter, given the fragile state of post-war Syria, and Beirut's tense relationship with Damascus given Hezbollah has long backed Assad's grip on power - oftentimes violently.

Hezbollah remains one of the most powerful military entities in the region.

Asked about his role in "stabilising" his neighbour, which has come under fierce Israeli attacks since Hezbollah launched rockets in support of its ally Hamas in October 2023, Sharaa said Syria can "empower the Lebanese government to have better institutions".

"Not to have any weapons working or functioning outside the rule of law or the the Lebanese state as well, [and] at the same time also to improve the Lebanese society and economic conditions there, in order to overcome the problems that the Syrian regime caused in Lebanon," he added.

"So we are engaging a best mechanism for political reform."

Tuesday's discussion with Sharaa was led by Brett McGurk, who worked with four presidents from both parties on Middle East issues, and maintains a hawkish pro-Israel and pro-US interventionist position.

He last worked in the White House under Joe Biden, where the return of the Israeli captives in Gaza became his paramount file.

The Israeli paper Haaretz recently revealed that Hamas offered to release all the captives within 24 hours of the 7 October 2023 attacks, but that the US and Israel turned down the offer. Biden's top diplomat at the time, Antony Blinken, called the reporting false.

McGurk's first question to Sharaa was about the 11 September 2001 attacks, given they were both sitting in New York City, and it had recently been the 25th anniversary.

"In 2013, you pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was the leader of al-Qaeda at the time, and of course was a mastermind to that attack... I just want to give you the opportunity... to renounce that former pledge."

Sharaa responded: "9/11, I had nothing to do with that at the time. I was 13 years old."

McGurk pushed again on the renunication.

"There are so many questions that are part of the past now, so maybe we need to update ourselves," Sharaa replied. "I don't believe that it is appropriate time to discuss things that happened 25 years ago. I was at a different age, and the conditions in the region were different, and they were pushing a lot of young people to go into that direction because of the pressure in that region."

Less than two years ago, Sharaa had a $10m bounty on his head, thanks to a US State Department terrorist designation that listed him alongside the top leaders of Isis in Syria.

He was known by his nom-de-guerre then, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and he led the al-Qaeda offshoot Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham all the way to the presidential palace in December 2024.

As a young man he'd spent six years in a US prison in Iraq for joining militias to fight the Americans after the 2003 invasion.

Now, however, he has become "part of this action" of ousting the Assad family, he told McGurk.

"Lifting that injustice is a noble act that any person will be honoured to do."

Governance

After two US army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed last year following an ISIS attack on a joint American-Syrian convoy in central Syria, Sharaa said his government is still going through "several levels" of building out a new security infrastructure for the country.

Trying to dismantle militias and bring all weaponry under control of the state, as well as vetting and recruiting for a national army all at once can cause "incidents", Sharaa said.

"There were several similar incidents, but they were not with American soldiers," he noted.

McGurk asked if Sharaa would be open to US troops returning in large numbers to Syria to train the new national army.

"There was a prior decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, and the Americans were upset because of that. And you were one of the people who were upset because of that decision," the Syrian president responded.

How Turkey helped engineer Ahmed al-Sharaa's rise to power Read More »

"But I believe things happened very well and very smoothly," he noted of Trump's withdrawal of US troops from Syria. "There, the withdrawal was very safe, and the region remained calm. No problems happened because of that vacuum, and the Syrian state and Syrian forces took control over the area, and [Kurdish forces] in the northeast were integrated [into Syria's military]."

"Emptying Syria from foreign bases... that is a good approach," he added.

That includes Russia, he confirmed, which had 170 bases across the country that have now been narrowed down to just two - and both of those bases will be used for training the Syrian military, Sharaa said.

On how he plans to tackle decentralisation given the many distinct ethnic and religious groups in Syria, Sharaa deferred to what he described as "old law" that his government can build on, as it devises the path that will elect a new president three years from now.

"There are wide powers for the governorates in the election of the municipal councils," he said.

"The People's Assembly is going to appoint a committee that is going to review the different laws in Syria, and another committee that will start drafting the constitution. And I believe that will be completed before the end of the five years [transition period]."

When asked, Sharaa did not rule out a run for election himself.

Sharaa is expected to give an address at the United Nations General Assembly later this week and last year he became the first Syrian leader in 60 years to stand at the famed podium.

Syria after Assad News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0