Syria, Israel reportedly hold direct talks in Azerbaijan

Syrian and Israeli officials recently held direct talks in Azerbaijan, according to reports, signifying momentum towards ending Israel's belligerent actions against the new government in Damascus.

Israel's Channel 12 reported on Thursday that the UAE had mediated a round of talks in the Azeri capital between representatives of Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, a senior Israeli military official, and Turkish diplomats.

CNN also reported on the talks on Friday, citing an Israeli official familiar with the matter.

The reported talks are part of ongoing negotiations between Turkey and Israel to de-escalate tensions in Syria, which have risen in the wake of Israel's incursions and airstrikes in the country and declared desire to partition it on ethnic and sectarian lines.

Since the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel has seized hundreds of square-kilometres of Syrian territory, launched hundreds of airstrikes across the country, and threatened to intervene in sectarian strife between Druze factions and Sunni pro-government forces.

Damascus has not acknowledged the talks with the Israelis, though al-Sharaa confirmed last week that the two governments were engaging indirectly.

Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's assistant foreign minister for political affairs, denied involvement in the talks.

The reports come a few days after US president Donald Trump made a big step towards restoring diplomatic relations with Syria, announcing during his Middle East trip that he would lift crippling economic sanctions imposed on the former Assad regime without conditions.

The US president also met briefly with al-Sharaa in Riyadh alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Bin Salman and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan have appealed to the Trump administration to normalise ties with Damascus and allow it to start rebuilding its war-shattered economy.

Trump's shock announcement marked a significant turn from the US's previous hardline approach to Syria's new authorities, to which it presented eight demands it wanted to see before it considered partial sanctions removal.

These included cracking down on Palestinian groups operating in Syria, destroying its chemical weapons stockpiles, and blocking foreign fighters from leadership positions.

The administration has also voiced optimism that Syria will eventually join the Abraham Accords – the normalisation pact brokered by Trump in 2020 between Israel, the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain.

Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have said that al-Sharaa is open to making peace with Israel.

"I told [al-Sharaa], I hope you’re going to join [the Abraham Accords] once you’re straightened out, and he said yes," the US president told reporters on Air Force One. "But they have a lot of work to do."

US officials have since ruled out an imminent repealing of the sanctions, with Rubio saying on Thursday that the Treasury intends to instead issue six-month waivers.

"Hopefully we’ll be in a position soon, or one day, to go to Congress and ask them to permanently remove the sanctions," he said.

Israel, which reportedly was not consulted by Trump before his announcement, had appealed to the administration not to lift the sanctions.