Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that Israel’s conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has created an opportunity for peace with neighboring Lebanon and Syria.
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948, but the two nations began direct negotiations following the ouster of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad, with hopes of finalizing security and military agreements by the end of this year, a Syrian official mentioned this week.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, Israel has continued to target Hezbollah positions despite a ceasefire in November aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed group.
“Our victories in Lebanon against Hezbollah have opened a window for a possibility that was not even imagined before our recent operations and actions: the possibility of peace with our northern neighbors,” Netanyahu told the cabinet.
“We are conducting talks with the Syrians — there is some progress, but it is still a long way off,” he added.
Since Assad’s fall at the hands of an Islamist-led coalition in December, Israel has deployed troops in a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the countries’ forces and has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria. Damascus has not retaliated.
Last week, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said his country was negotiating an agreement that would see Israel withdraw from areas it has occupied in recent months.
Israel has demanded a demilitarized zone in southern Syria, and an official with the Syrian military recently told AFP it had withdrawn all heavy weaponry from the area.
The United States has been encouraging both countries to reach an agreement to formally cease hostilities.
Washington has also played a role in urging Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, the only group to retain its weapons after the country’s 1975-1990 civil war — doing so in the name of resistance against Israel.
In August, Beirut ordered its military to draft disarmament plans, which its cabinet said the army would begin implementing.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi stated earlier in September that the army would start by fully disarming Hezbollah near the border with Israel within three months, then focus on other areas.
Since November’s ceasefire, Israel has maintained troops in five areas of southern Lebanon it considers strategic.
