A Syrian activist who paid a rare visit to the Knesset Wednesday said new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa had called the movement toward forging peace with Israel a once-in-a-century opportunity, but worried the chance could slip away.

Businessman and political activist Shadi Martini recalled his meeting with Sharaa while speaking at the inaugural conference of a Knesset lobby aimed at advancing a regional security arrangement, attending alongside Saudi journalist Abdulaziz Alkhamis.

The two attended the meeting of the Lobby for Advancing a Regional Security Arrangement against the backdrop of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and public optimism about potentially expanding the Abraham Accords normalization agreements. The lobby was jointly founded by opposition MKs Ram Ben Barak, Gilad Kariv and Alon Schuster.

Speaking in English about new opportunities for cooperation between Israel and the new Syrian government, Martini — who fled Syria during its civil war in 2012 — told lawmakers at the conference that he had an “interesting meeting” with Sharaa around two weeks ago.

“I was with two other colleagues, one is a priest and one is a rabbi… We entered the presidential palace in Damascus. I really appreciated that meeting. It went on for two hours, and the topic of Israel was dominant,” he said.

Martini noted that “one thing that stuck with me that President al-Sharaa said was: ‘We only have these opportunities one time every 100 years, it’s a very unique opportunity, but the window will not always stay open.'”

He suggested that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah last year and the killing of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, were the key events that allowed opposition forces in Syria to rapidly overthrow the government in December: “For Syrians, we were very happy with what Israel did, we really appreciated it.”

That sentiment, however, was reversed by extensive Israeli military activity in Syria........

© The Times of Israel