Syria’s leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Monday that US President Donald Trump supports his insistence on a complete Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory as a condition for a comprehensive security deal between the long-warring neighboring countries.

Speaking to The Washington Post after becoming the first Syrian leader to meet a US president in Washington, Sharaa said Trump would “push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”

Israeli troops took up several positions in southwestern Syria following the fall of the Bashar Assad regime last year, in what Jerusalem has said is a temporary security measure.

While Washington is keen to eventually normalize ties between Israel and Syria, the latter is aiming first at a security deal, with the condition that Israeli troops withdraw from its territory.

Sharaa said that during his Monday meeting with the US president, “we found that Mr. Trump supports our perspective as well, and he will push as quickly as possible in order to reach a solution for this.”

“Israel has always claimed that it has concerns about Syria because it is afraid of the threats that the Iranian militias and Hezbollah represent,” Shara said, referring to the Lebanese terror group. “We are the ones who expelled those forces out of Syria.”

Sharaa also said an Israeli demand that the territory south of Damascus be demilitarized is unreasonable, and will cause chaos.

“If this demilitarized zone was used by some parties as a launching pad for hitting Israel, who is going to be responsible for that?” he said.

Sharaa charged that Israel’s invasion of Syria comes from “expansionist ambitions” and not security........

© The Times of Israel