Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Friday that negotiations are taking place between Damascus and Israel with the aim of renewing the 1974 ceasefire agreement. For Syria, this would mean an Israeli withdrawal from territory it has captured over the past year, including the peak of Mount Hermon.

In an interview with local media, al-Sharaa said that “after October 7, Israel began to worry about everything around it.”

He accused Jerusalem of having sought to destabilize Syria, saying that part of Israeli policy had been to mourn the fall of the Assad regime: “Israel wanted Syria to become a country locked in conflict with a regional state, a battlefield for ongoing disputes and settling scores. Israel had a plan to divide Syria, to make it a place for conflict with the Iranians or something similar. It was surprised by the regime’s collapse.”

The Syrian president added that Israel had faced “intelligence problems and security failures from time to time, leading to excessive caution over security concerns.”

Al-Sharaa stressed that Damascus had reaffirmed its commitment to the 1974 agreement and appealed to the U.N. for UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) peacekeepers to return to their positions. He said current talks were aimed at reaching a new security arrangement that would restore the situation to what it was before Dec. 8, 2024, when the Assad regime fell.

“Syria does not want to be in a state of tension or worry with any country in the world,” al-Sharaa said. “The ball is in the court of those states that want to stir up fitna [Arabic for “civil strife”] and instability. Syria is seeking full calm in its relations with all states in the world and the region. That has been our policy from the very beginning.”

Earlier on Friday, al-Sharaa hosted U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper for a meal in Damascus. According to the Syrian presidency, the meeting focused on “prospects for cooperation in political and military fields in ways that serve shared interests and lay the foundations for security and stability.”

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack also took part in the discussions.