Al-Sharaa: “Israel Is Inside Syria Not for Security, but for Expansion”

Washington D.C. ( QNN)- After his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Israel’s presence inside Syrian territory has nothing to do with security, but with expansion.

In an interview with The Washington Post, al-Sharaa stated that Israel is using “security” as a pretext to justify occupation and control over more Syrian land.

“The advances that Israel made into Syria are not coming from security concerns,” he said. “They are coming from expansionist ambitions.”

Al-Sharaa described a dangerous pattern in Israel’s regional behavior. “Israel occupied the Golan Heights to ‘protect itself,’” he said. “Now it imposes conditions in the south ‘to protect the Golan.’ Tomorrow it might occupy central Syria ‘to protect the south,’ until it reaches Munich.”

He said such logic proves that Israel’s motives go far beyond defense. “It’s an endless cycle of expansion dressed in the language of security,” al-Sharaa added.

Asked if Syria would accept a demilitarized zone south of Damascus as part of negotiations, al-Sharaa rejected the idea, calling it both unrealistic and dangerous.

“It’s hard to talk about an entire demilitarized region,” he said. “If chaos breaks out there, who will protect it? If some parties use it to attack Israel, who takes responsibility then?”

He stressed that such land remains fully sovereign Syrian territory. “These are Syrian lands, and we must have the freedom to manage them,” he said.

Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized internationally. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria.

The Syrian leader said his government is in direct talks with Israel, backed by the United States, to reach a final settlement but only if Israel withdraws to its pre-December 8 borders.