Israel’s strikes push Syria towards Mecca defence pact membership

Israel’s escalating campaign to stop Syria rebuilding its military with Turkish help looks set to backfire, after Damascus signalled it was considering joining the new mutual-defence pact formed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Securing a Washington-mediated security deal with Israel was still Damascus’ top priority, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani reportedly told Roman Gofman, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, at a meeting in Amman on Sunday.

Such a deal would see Israeli forces withdraw from areas of southwest Syria they have occupied since the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024.

But according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency, Shaibani made clear that any agreement would not come at the price of capitulating to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands for “freedom of action” throughout Syria.

Syria was a sovereign state with “the full right to rebuild and develop its national army and determine its alliances and partnerships in accordance with its national interests”, Shaibani reportedly said, adding that Damascus would not accept any arrangement that restricted those rights.

The Amman talks were hastily arranged by the United States after Netanyahu ordered air strikes last Tuesday on a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border. He claimed the strikes pre-empted a planned Turkish deployment at the Abu Al-Duhur military airfield in northwest Idlib province – an allegation rejected as false by Ankara, Damascus and US special regional envoy Tom Barrack.