News - Middle East: Head of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham-led (HTS) administration has expressed readiness to normalize Syrian ties with Israel amid Washington's plans to revoke anti-Damascus sanctions and Israel's occupation of more Syrian land. 

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was quoted by US Congressman Cory Mills as saying after a meeting in Syria last week that Damascus “was interested under the right conditions” to normalize ties with Tel Aviv.

Mills told Bloomberg that he discussed with the HTS regime’s president the steps needed for him to obtain sanctions relief, with Jolani responding during their 90-minute meeting that Syria seeks to join the Abraham Accords — the series of normalization agreements that US President Donald Trump’s previous administration negotiated between Israel and a few Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The US congressman said he had told Jolani that Syria must destroy the chemical weapons allegedly left behind by the Assad government, partner with neighboring countries on countering terrorism and deal with foreign fighters who filled the ranks of the HTS.

Stating that Jolani is open to clarifying how he plans to address the presence of foreign fighters still operating in Syria, Mills told Bloomberg that he had pressed Jolani to provide assurances to Israel.

Mills also said Syria’s self-proclaimed president had provided him with a letter to take to Trump, without providing details on its contents.

The 42-year-old Jolani was in prison in Iraq for years on charges of belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist outfit after the 2003 US-led invasion of the Arab country. He is still under US and UN sanctions for his ties to the terrorist group, which the American officials confirmed to have been established by the then administration in Washington.

The US imposed debilitating sanctions on Syria after the onset of foreign-sponsored militancy in the Arab country in 2011. The bans have generally remained in place since the HTS toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad late last year.

Since the collapse of Assad’s government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army.

The Israeli regime has also intensified its aggression on Syria by initiating an unlawful land appropriation beyond the occupied Golan Heights in what is seen as a component of the so-called “Greater Israel” project.

This strategic territory has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Israeli military in December advanced beyond the Golan Heights demilitarized buffer zone, occupying Mount Hermon and other strategic areas inside Syria, in violation of a 1974 international agreement between Israel and Syria.

Media reports recently said the Israeli military was organizing hiking tours for Israeli settlers in the occupied Golan Heights demilitarized buffer zone during the Passover holiday.

The United Nations and the international community recognize the region as a part of Syria, while the United States stands alone in its formal recognition of Israel’s illegal occupation of the Golan Heights.

The US military has since 2014 deployed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria with no authorization from the Arab country’s government, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

Damascus, however, maintained that the deployment was meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.

Over the past years, multiple footage have emerged revealing that the US occupation forces have used tankers to smuggle Syrian crude oil from the country’s northern provinces to their bases in northern Iraq, as part of Washington’s systematic plundering of Syria’s basic commodities.

The HTS militant group seized control of Damascus on December 8, culminating a swift offensive that had begun in northwestern province of Aleppo just two weeks earlier and ultimately brought an end to Assad’s 24-year rule.

The HTS administration has since been involved in flagrant violations of human rights in Syria, particularly against minorities, namely Syria's Alawite minority, drawing widespread condemnations form the international community.

Source: Press TV