Efforts to secure a long-awaited peace agreement between Syria and Israel have been thrown into uncertainty after a last-minute dispute over humanitarian access to Syria’s southern province of Sweida, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations. The talks, which had been progressing steadily for months under U.S. mediation, hit an unexpected roadblock in the final stretch as Israel insisted on establishing a land corridor for aid into Sweida—a demand Syria rejected as an infringement on its sovereignty.
The negotiations, brokered by the United States in cities including Baku, Paris, and London, had gained momentum in the weeks leading up to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September 2025. The proposed pact aimed to create a demilitarized zone encompassing Sweida, a region still reeling from sectarian violence in July that claimed the lives of hundreds of Druze civilians. For Israel, which is home to a 120,000-strong Druze minority whose men serve in the Israeli military, the protection of the Druze community across the border has long been a stated priority. Israel has even carried out military strikes in Syria, citing the defense of the Druze as justification, according to reporting by Reuters.
During earlier rounds of talks in Paris, Israel floated the idea of opening a land corridor to Sweida to facilitate humanitarian aid. Syrian officials, however, pushed back firmly, arguing that such a move would breach the country's sovereignty. Despite the initial rejection, Israeli negotiators revived the demand in the final stages of the discussions, a move that, according to two Israeli officials, a Syrian source, and a Washington-based source briefed on the proceedings, derailed what many hoped would be a historic announcement during the week of September 22-26, 2025.
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, who has been at the helm of the mediation efforts, told reporters on Tuesday, September 23, that the two nations were on the verge of a “de-escalation agreement.” Under this preliminary deal, Israel would halt its attacks on Syrian territory, while Syria would agree not to move any heavy machinery or military equipment near the border. Barrack described the arrangement as a crucial first step toward the broader security pact that negotiators had been crafting for months. But as one diplomat involved in the process put it, “It appears that the U.S. is scaling down from a security deal to a de-escalation deal.”
The sudden impasse has left both sides frustrated and wary. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led opposition forces that seized Damascus last year, voiced his concerns at an event in New York just days before the General Assembly convened. “We are scared of Israel. We are worried about Israel. It’s not the other way around,” he said, reflecting a deep-seated mistrust that has colored relations since Israel’s founding in 1948. Al-Sharaa’s remarks came amid a week of silence between Syrian and Israeli negotiators, with a Syrian official telling Reuters that while talks before the General Assembly had been “positive,” there had been no further conversations since the week began.
Addressing the General Assembly on Friday, September 26, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a cautiously optimistic tone. He told world leaders that he believed an agreement could be reached with Syria—one that would respect Syrian sovereignty while safeguarding Israel’s security interests and the safety of minorities in the region. Netanyahu’s office later clarified that the ongoing negotiations hinged on “ensuring the interests of Israel, which include, inter alia, the demilitarization of south-western Syria and preserving the safety and security of the Druze in Syria.”
The backdrop to these talks is a region in flux. Since opposition forces toppled Syria’s former president, Bashar al-Assad, on December 8, 2024, Israel has ramped up its military activities in Syria, targeting what it describes as hostile military assets and deploying troops into the country’s south. For its part, Syria has pushed for a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement, which established a narrow demilitarized zone between the two countries monitored by the United Nations. In mid-September, President al-Sharaa described the old deal as a “necessity,” adding, “We could reach a deal at any moment, but then another problem arises which is: will Israel commit to and implement it? We will see this in the next phase.”
While these high-stakes negotiations played out on the international stage, a separate drama was unfolding back home. On Wednesday, September 24, Syrian activist and journalist Amer Matar was arrested at a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon. Matar, who had just launched the Syria Prisons Museum—a virtual project documenting crimes committed in prisons under the Assad regime—was accused by authorities of illegally obtaining documents belonging to security services. Ministry of Interior spokesperson Noureddine Al-Baba claimed that Matar had ignored a prior summons and attempted to leave the country, an allegation the museum’s staff denied in a public statement.
Matar spent the night in detention but was released on bail the following day after investigators determined the documents in his possession did not warrant further detention. The Syria Prisons Museum, which debuted on September 15, offers a 3D tour of the notorious Sednaya Prison and features testimonies from former detainees, along with documents detailing inmate numbers, movements, and deaths. According to The New Arab, the museum sends any original records it acquires to the National Commission for the Missing, a government body tasked with investigating the fate of those disappeared during Assad’s rule. “It is committed to protecting these documents from loss or damage, given their value in revealing the fates of victims and preserving Syrian memory,” the museum stated.
In a social media post hours after his release, Matar refuted the allegations against him, writing, “What we did is exactly what thousands of families of the missing have done: attempting to photograph what we could before the chaos destroyed them — identities of detainees and documents related to their detention and lives inside prisons.” He also called on Syrian authorities to clarify how documentation from the former regime should be handled, “so that what happened to me is not repeated.”
Matar’s history as a target of official scrutiny is well documented. He was previously imprisoned for eight months in 2011 in Al-Khatib, a facility notorious for torture, where he endured beatings by cables and whips. His testimony in a German court in 2022 was instrumental in securing the first conviction for torture against a former Assad regime colonel, Anwar Raslan, who is now serving a life sentence.
Remarkably, Matar’s arrest coincided with President al-Sharaa’s landmark appearance at the United Nations General Assembly—the first by a Syrian leader in nearly six decades. In his address, al-Sharaa pledged, “I guarantee to bring to justice everyone accountable and responsible for bloodshed,” and highlighted his administration’s efforts toward transitional justice, while also urging world leaders to lift sanctions on Syria.
The convergence of diplomatic maneuvering abroad and demands for accountability at home underscores a pivotal moment for Syria. Whether the impasse over humanitarian access will be resolved—and whether justice for past crimes will truly be served—remains to be seen. For now, the fate of both peace and memory in Syria hangs in the balance.