Analysis: Israel, Syria and US meeting shows promise in diplomatic engagement

A recent meeting between Syria and Israel could potentially be a breakthrough in relations between the two countries, according to an expert at Texas A&M University.

On Jan. 6, Syria and Israel agreed to a joint coordination mechanism to de-escalate military tensions under United States oversight. Amy Austin Holmes, an instructional associate professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, D.C., said the agreement could potentially pave the way for positive diplomatic engagement between the two nations. Strong United States leadership will be crucial to maintain this development, she said.

“Israel and Syria have essentially agreed to create what they call a communication cell to facilitate immediate and ongoing coordination on their intelligence sharing on de-escalation, diplomatic engagement and commercial opportunities,” Holmes said.

According to an official release from the U.S. Department of State, the communication cell will serve as a platform for addressing any disputes promptly and working to prevent misunderstandings between the two nations.

Israel had previously raised concerns about new authorities in Damascus because the group that took power, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has past affiliations with al-Qaida.

“That’s why Israel carried out a number of strikes in Syria, and one of the reasons why we now see this agreement as potentially paving the way for a type of normalization between Israel and Syria, which would be a huge development,” Holmes said.

Holmes said this was the fifth round of U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Syria and most information has not been published until recently due to the sensitive nature of the discussions.

“That’s why the public announcement yesterday was such a big deal, because they publicly acknowledged that these talks are happening and they came to an agreement on this coordination,” she said.

Holmes said one of the major success stories of the past year in Syria is the Aleppo agreement on April 1, 2025, that took major steps toward de-escalation. Some of these security measures included withdrawing Syrian Democratic Forces units from certain neighborhoods, banning armed demonstrations, opening crossings between Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts and the rest of Aleppo, and affirming the two neighborhoods as a part of Aleppo.

“We compared the governance structures of northeast Syria and Damascus in regard to their approach to economic inclusion, governance, peace negotiations and language rights,” Holmes said. “We suggested that the Aleppo agreement could be a model for unifying other contested regions of the country now because it’s really the one example of where the interim government in Damascus and Kurds came to an agreement and they agree to share power.”

Although the Aleppo agreement could be a model for unifying other parts of Syria, Holmes said it is also threatened by recent hostilities in Aleppo between forces affiliated with the government in Damascus and Turkish-backed groups.

“Some analysts have suggested that the government in Damascus is actually doing this now because they want to distract from the fact that they signed this agreement with Israel because they know that it might be unpopular within some segments of their population,” Holmes said. “The Aleppo agreement can be emulated in other parts of the country, and that’s why it’s so worrying that now there’s been an escalation of hostilities. It could jeopardize all that progress being made.”