While Syria will seek pragmatic ties with Israel for limited security cooperation, domestic anti-Israeli sentiment and pressure from hard-liners, stoked by additional Israeli military interventions in Syria, will prevent any formal normalization of relations between the two countries, especially in the absence of U.S. economic pressure on Damascus. On July 26, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack moderated a meeting in Paris between Syrian and Israeli representatives to de-escalate tensions following the latest round of Israeli airstrikes on Syrian targets on July 16, which included attacks near the presidential palace and on the army headquarters in Damascus. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted the strikes after the Syrian army deployed to the southern province of Sweida, a region Israel wants to be demilitarized, to break up sectarian clashes between Sunni Bedouin clans and Syrian Druze backed by Israel. But U.S. mediation successfully pressured both Israel and Syria to de-escalate, with interim Syrian...
