A Palestinian Authority delegation led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa met de facto Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Tuesday, according to the P.A.’s official Wafa outlet.
The delegation also included Mahmoud al-Habbash, a senior adviser to P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas, and Samir al-Rifai, his envoy to Syria, according to Arab media reports.
The meeting between Mustafa and al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, reportedly marked the first official visit from a top P.A. official to Damascus in more than 15 years.
According to Wafa, Mustafa expressed Ramallah’s “supportive stance towards Syria, its leadership and people, and as a consolidation of the bonds of cooperation and strengthening of political and economic coordination to achieve more progress and prosperity.”
“For us, Syria is a pivotal country, supporting and backing our cause. We strongly and insistently support the lifting of international sanctions on Syria as a basic requirement for stability and development, and the return of Syria to its position in the Arab League,” Wafa quoted Mustafa as saying.
The P.A. was “moving steadily towards achieving the national goal of ending the Israeli occupation of our Palestinian and Arab lands,” he added.
Since the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, Israeli troops have taken up positions inside and beyond the Syrian buffer zone, including the strategic Syrian side of Mount Hermon. The Israeli Air Force has also conducted many strikes on assets of the former Assad regime army.
Al-Sharaa on Jan. 16 reiterated his call for the Israel Defense Forces to fully withdraw from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, accusing Jerusalem of endangering “the entire region.”
The Syrian leader told the Reuters news agency that “Israel’s advance in the region was due to the presence of Iranian militias and Hezbollah.”
“After the liberation of Damascus, I believe that they have no presence at all. There are pretexts that Israel is using today to advance into the Syrian regions, into the buffer zone,” he said.
Al-Sharaa claimed his regime was prepared to allow U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed to the area, in accordance with the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War with Israel.