Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said that security talks with Israel are a “necessity”, and could lead to results in the “coming days”.

Al-Sharaa, who led the force that overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad in December ending the country’s 13-year war, made the comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Israel responded to al-Assad’s overthrow by declaring that a 1974 security agreement with Syria had collapsed, and increased the amount of Syrian territory Israel controlled, as well as ramping up air attacks in Syria, killing several Syrian soldiers over the past few months.

The United States, which has backed Syria’s new authorities, has attempted to broker a deal between Syria and Israel.

However, al-Sharaa said that the US had not pressued Syria to make a deal with Israel.

The Syrian president added that the potential agreement between Israel and Syria would need to respect Syria’s airspace, which Israel has repeatedly violated for years, as well as Syria’s territorial integrity. He added that the United Nations would need to monitor any agreement.

A security agreement could lead to other agreements being reached, al-Sharaa said, but a normalisation agreement between the two countries was not currently on the table.

More to come…