PARIS: President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said Wednesday that Syria was holding “indirect talks” with Israel to calm tensions between the two countries, following Israeli strikes and threats against Syria since Bashar Assad’s ouster.
“There are indirect talks (with Israel) taking place through mediators to calm the situation and try to contain the situation so it does not reach the point where it escapes the control of both sides,” Sharaa told a press conference in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Random Israeli interventions... have violated the 1974” armistice, Sharaa said, adding that “since we arrived in Damascus, we have told all relevant parties that Syria is committed to the 1974 agreement.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on the country since Assad’s December ouster and has said it wants to prevent advanced weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.
Israeli troops have also entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the 1974 armistice line on the Golan Heights and carried out incursions deeper into southern Syria.
Sharaa said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force must “return to the Blue Line of separation,” adding that UNDOF had made a number of visits to Damascus.
Macron condemned Israeli strikes on Syria, saying they would not guarantee “Israel’s long-term security.”
“As for bombings and incursions, I think it’s bad practice. You don’t ensure your country’s security by violating the territorial integrity of your neighbors,” Macron said.
Sharaa said that “we are trying to speak with all countries that are in contact with the Israeli side to pressure them to stop interfering in Syria’s affairs, violating its airspace and bombing some of its facilities.”
Sharaa said he and Macron discussed “the ongoing Israeli threats,” adding that “Israel has bombed Syria more than 20 times in the past week alone... under the pretext of protecting minorities.”
Israel’s military said it launched strikes near Damascus’s presidential palace early Friday after the country’s defense minister threatened intervention if Syrian authorities failed to protect the Druze minority, after sectarian clashes in Druze areas last.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the move was a “clear message” to Syria’s new rulers.
The clashes came after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

NEW YORK CITY: Israel’s ambassador to the UN has accused the organization of walking away from negotiations over a new Gaza aid proposal.

The remarks came after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Sunday rejected a plan to deliver all aid supplies to the enclave through Israeli-operated hubs.

Israel’s security cabinet on Monday approved plans to “conquer” almost all of Gaza in a bid to step up military pressure on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which still hold 59 Israeli hostages.

The rejected Israeli aid proposal involved the closure of the existing distribution system operated by the UN and its partners.

Speaking outside the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon said that his country’s efforts were aimed at ensuring humanitarian aid reached the right people.

“Israel has been engaged in constructive discussions to establish secure and effective aid delivery solutions that ensure food, water and medicine reach civilians, not Hamas terrorists.

“These are serious efforts aimed at solving a real problem — the constant and mass stealing of humanitarian aid by Hamas. Rather than engage with our proposals or seek constructive alternatives, the UN and the secretary-general chose to walk away,” he said.

“I must ask why. Why was there no attempt at a constructive dialogue, to hear ideas, to discuss them?”

The OCHA accused Israel of attempting to “reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic, as part of a military strategy.”

Jens Laerke, the office’s spokesperson, said on Tuesday: “It appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponize the aid and we have warned against that for a very long time. Aid should be provided based on humanitarian need to whomever needs it.”

Only 16 of Gaza’s 29 Palestine Red Crescent Society clinics remain partially functional and are facing severe shortages.

Laerke relayed testimonies from colleagues in Gaza who had seen people “rummaging through garbage, trying to find something edible.”

He described the humanitarian situation in the enclave as “harsh, brutal and inhuman.”

But Danon accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of protecting a failed system.

“If the goal is to exclude Hamas and deliver humanitarian assistance without political agendas, then why did the secretary-general abandon the table so quickly?

“Why is he trying to protect a failed model? I would remind the secretary-general that 59 hostages still remain in Hamas captivity. We will never leave them behind.

“Israel will continue doing what the UN should be doing: defending our people, dismantling terror and above all, fighting for the freedom of the 59 hostages held by Hamas.”