Syrian, Israeli officials meet in Baku

A Syrian and an Israeli official met face to face in Baku Saturday on the sidelines of a visit to Azerbaijan by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a diplomatic source in Damascus said.

The meeting marked a major step for the two countries which have been foes for decades, and comes after Israel initially cold-shouldered Sharaa's administration as jihadist because of his past links to al-Qaida.

"A meeting took place between a Syrian official and an Israeli official on the sidelines of Sharaa's visit to Baku," the source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Israel is a major arms supplier to Azerbaijan and has a significant diplomatic presence in the Caucasus nation which neighbors its arch foe Iran.

Sharaa himself did not take part in the meeting, which focused on "the recent Israeli military presence in Syria", the source added.

After the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria to prevent key military assets falling into the hands of the Islamist-led interim administration headed by Sharaa.

It also sent troops into the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that used to separate the opposing forces in the strategic Golan Heights, from which it has conducted forays deeper into southern Syria.

Sharaa has said repeatedly that Syria does not seek conflict with its neighbors, and has instead asked the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks.

His government recently confirmed that it had held indirect contacts with Israel seeking a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement which created the buffer zone.

Late last month, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel was interested in striking a peace and normalization agreement with Syria.

A Syria government source quoted by state media responded that such talk was "premature".

But during a visit to Lebanon this week, U.S. special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said: "The dialogue has started between Syria and Israel".

After meeting Sharaa in Riyadh in May, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he had expressed hope that Syria would join other Arab states which normalized their relations with Israel.

"(Sharaa) said yes. But they have a lot of work to do," Trump said.

During his visit to Baku, Sharaa held talks with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev, the two governments said.

Azerbaijan announced it would begin exporting gas to Syria via Turkey, a key ally of both governments, a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency said.