ANTALYA, Turkey, April 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday said he could consider "long-term negotiations" with Israel on the disputed Golan Heights if Israel agreed to withdraw from recently occupied Syrian territories.

Since the fall in December 2024 of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Israel has sent troops into a buffer zone patrolled by the UN that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights.

Sharaa said Syria wanted "either to establish new rules that would reactivate the disengagement agreement or conclude a new agreement that would guarantee the security of both parties."

"If we reach an agreement, we could enter into long-term negotiations to resolve the issue of the occupied Golan," the Syrian president told a diplomatic forum in the Turkish city of Antalya.

Israel had seized most of this plateau from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, then annexed the areas under its control -- a move not recognised by most of the international community.

"Israel is violating the 1974 disengagement agreement, and today we are working to reach a security agreement that will guarantee its withdrawal from the territories it occupied after the fall of the (Assad) regime and its return to the 1974 lines," Sharaa said.

In mid-February, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said ongoing negotiations to seal a security agreement with Israel concerned the areas recently occupied by the Israeli army, but excluded the broader issue of the Golan Heights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regularly makes it clear that he has no intention of returning to Syria the part of the Golan seized by Israel, whose annexation is not recognised by the UN.