Syria FM met Mossad chief in Jordan, AFP sources say

Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani met Mossad chief Roman Gofman in Jordan on Sunday, two sources told AFP, in talks held days after an Israeli attack on an airbase in northwestern Syria.

A diplomatic source and a Syrian government source, both requesting anonymity, said Shaibani and Gofman discussed issues including setting up a “special operations room” in Jordan under US supervision to prevent confrontations in Syria, including those involving Turkey.

The sources also said the two discussed Israeli incursions into southern Syria. The Syrian government source said the talks were the first negotiations between Israel and Syria in some time, while the diplomatic source said they were the first in several months.

The meeting, first reported by Axios, was not officially confirmed by either side. A spokesperson for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AFP they had no comment.

Israel on Tuesday bombed the disused Abu Duhur base in Syria, saying it wanted to prevent Turkish troops deploying there. Ankara denied any visit to the site. US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack criticised the strike as an “unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”

Israel and Syria's new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks. After negotiations in Paris in January, they agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism as they moved toward a security agreement. An Arab diplomat in Damascus told AFP at the time that a joint operations room based in Jordan would follow issues including security coordination and border control.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria since the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad by Islamist forces whom Israel considers jihadists. It has also sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights for decades.

Israel has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory and has said it will keep troops in a “security zone” in southern Syria, where it seeks a broader demilitarised area.

The talks came a day after Israel struck what it said was a militant in southern Syria. Damascus said one person was wounded and called the strike a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.

Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, a move recognised by the United States and, this month, by Colombia. US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a security deal between Syria and Israel, but Israel remains distrustful of Syria's authorities.