Syria just revealed Israel walked away from a nearly finished peace deal
6 days ago · 25 September 2026Share
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa shaking hands with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New York in September 2025. U.S. Department of State (Freddie Everett) · Public domain
Syria's president just said his country and Israel got 90% of the way to a security deal.
And then Israel walked.
That's according to Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's president. He said it on stage at an Atlantic Council panel, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, about a day ago.
So how close did they actually get?
He says direct talks between Damascus and Israel have been running for roughly a year, with the Americans involved the whole time. And he says quote "we almost reached 90% of agreements" on security arrangements.
Then it stopped.
Al-Sharaa says the sides were closing in on a deal when Israel pulled back and added new conditions. Read that again. Syria's president, in public, saying his side was ready to sign and Israel wasn't.
He's also laid out how he wants the rest of this to go. Step one: Israel pulls back from Syrian land it moved into after Bashar al-Assad's government fell in December 2024, all the way to the line drawn in 1974. Step two: talks on security. Step three, and only after that: talks on real peace.
And he says the door is still open. Al-Sharaa says the two sides aren't there yet on lasting peace, but that Syria's own security and rights have to come first.
So this hasn't collapsed. It's stuck. And on Syria's telling, Israel is the one holding out for more.
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Contains modified Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data showing the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East region including Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. File photo.Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC · Public domain
What more? Nobody's said. Al-Sharaa didn't spell out what's actually inside that last 10%. Neither did anyone reporting on the panel. That part is genuinely unknown right now.
One thing he was completely clear on: the Golan Heights. He says it's Syrian territory, full stop, not up for discussion, and points to more than 137 countries at the UN recognising exactly that. Israel has held most of the Golan since 1967 and annexed it in 1981 — a move the UN has never recognised. Since Assad fell, Israel has pushed further into a buffer zone inside Syria, citing security concerns, and has kept hitting and entering Syrian territory since.
Al-Sharaa also thinks Israel needs to rethink its whole approach. He says quote "Israel needs to change its policy because it is creating problems around it" trying to keep itself safe, and that it isn't working. He says the 7 October 2023 attacks shouldn't be allowed to decide how Israel treats Syria, and points to more than 70,000 people killed in Gaza.
On America, he sounded a lot warmer. He says Donald Trump, the US President, stood by Syria and made what he called a historic decision to lift American sanctions on the country. He even recalled joking to Trump that America should just give Israel New Jersey instead of recognising its hold on the Golan.
And here's the pattern. This isn't the first time he's said this. Back in July, he said publicly for the first time that Syria was working toward a security deal with Israel that could grow into full peace. Around five months ago, in London, he said Israel had changed its mind at the last minute right when things were making progress. Same shape every time: talks move forward, then Israel steps back.
So what does Israel say about all this? Nothing yet. It hasn't confirmed the 90% figure. It hasn't given its own account of why talks stalled. Israeli officials have previously said they see al-Sharaa's government as a security risk, and doubt any security deal that isn't backed by real political change inside Syria.
Al-Sharaa took power in December 2024 after leading the offensive that removed Bashar al-Assad. Since then he's been chasing recognition from Israel, from America, and from the Gulf states, all at once.
So here's where it stands. Nobody's said what the last 10% actually covers. Nobody knows if Israel will respond. Nobody knows if the two sides sit down again.
Right now, this is Syria's account of a deal that got most of the way there — and stopped.
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