Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday met with US special envoy to Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack in Damascus.
The meeting was also attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and covered political and security developments in Syria and the wider region, according to the Syrian state SANA news agency.
The previous day, Barrack called for an end to Israeli incursions inside Syrian territory, while speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha, saying that there was a danger that this would expand the conflict in the region.
Barrack added that diplomacy and dialogue were essential to preventing new regional crises.
On Thursday, Israeli troops launched another attack into Syrian territory killing a man with a disability in the village of Jamla in Deraa province, according to AFP.
Earlier, the media office of the Rif Dimashq governorate denied social media reports claiming that Israeli occupation forces had been patrolling the road between Daraa and Kiswah, a suburb of Damascus, saying that these “rumours” were “entirely false”.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights recently reported that at least 69 other Syrians have been killed in Israeli attacks since December 2024, when the regime of former dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.
After rebels led by current President Ahmed Al-Sharaa overthrew the regime in that month, Israeli forces invaded southwestern Syria, seizing land beyond the Golan Heights, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, and launching hundreds of airstrikes.
Sharaa has offered Israel a security deal if it returns to the 1974 disengagement lines, while ruling out full normalisation of relations.
He has also adopted a pro-Western foreign policy, improving relations with the US, while distancing Syria from Iran, a key backer of the former Assad regime.
Barrack praised Sharaa’s management of the transitional period, noting that Damascus had demonstrated a serious willingness to engage in dialogue and negotiations to reach a security deal with Israel.
He argued that potential understandings could include a “non-aggression agreement,” which could pave the way for the normalisation of relations in the future.
Barrack’s discussions with Sharaa addressed ways to ease tensions on the ground and support economic recovery through the Syria Recovery and Reconstruction Trust Fund (START), a multi-donor fund which Syria agreed with the World Bank earlier this week.
Syria is still suffering from the devastation caused by 14 years of brutal civil war, with more than 90 percent of the current population living in poverty.
The meeting in Damascus follows a series of intensive diplomatic consultations between Barrack and the Syrian government.
These have included previous meetings with al-Shaibani in Ankara, as well as an earlier meeting between President al-Sharaa and the US envoy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last September.