Ali Al-Rifai, a senior official in Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s administration, stated in an interview with KAN News that Damascus is committed to regional stability and open to peace with all its neighbors, including Israel.
In the interview, Al-Rifai told KAN, “Syria strives to establish peace in the region. As a nation, we genuinely want peace. Syria does not want war. We want peace with everyone.”
When asked by KAN whether this included Israel, he replied, “Peace with everyone, without exception,” according to the report.
Al-Rifai, Director of Public Relations in Syria's Information Ministry, stressed that peace and security are basic rights of the Syrian people.
“We want Syria to live in stability and peace — this is the right of the Syrian people. We do not want any party to attack Syrian land. In other words, Israeli forces must withdraw from the areas they recently seized,” he told KAN.
He added that there is now a historic opportunity to improve relations between Syria and Israel, on the condition that Israel honors its commitments. “Israel must respect the agreements signed with Syria in the 1970s and other previous understandings,” he said.
Al-Rifai also commented on US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US would lift sanctions on Syria.
“Praise be to God. The feeling cannot be described — it is great joy,” he told KAN.
Syrian talks with Donald Trump
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump met with President al-Sharaa and reportedly urged Syria to join the Abraham Accords, KAN reported.
Just last week, during a press conference in France, al-Sharaa confirmed that Syria had been engaged in indirect talks with Israel through international mediators, KAN reported.
The purpose of the talks, he said, was to reduce tensions “so that matters do not spiral out of control on both sides of the border.”
At a regional summit in Saudi Arabia attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and, reportedly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who joined remotely, Trump called on Syria to expel Palestinian terrorist groups from its territory. He also pledged that the US would work to prevent the resurgence of ISIS in Syria.
Following the summit, the White House said that al-Sharaa responded by inviting US companies to invest in Syria’s oil and gas industries.