Israel, Syrian leaders agree to ceasefire, U.S. envoy says

The leaders of Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire following recent Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital, a U.S. envoy said Friday, as he urged all sides in war-torn Syria to lay down arms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa “have agreed to a ceasefire” also backed by neighbors Turkey and Jordan, said Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey who is also point man on Syria, in a social media post.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors,” Barrack wrote on X.

Israel on Wednesday bombed locations in the Syrian capital Damascus, including on the country’s defense ministry.

Israel said it was defending the Druze community after deadly clashes between the minority, which has a presence in Israel, and Bedouins in the southern Syrian province of Sweida.

Some diplomats and analysts see Israel as maximizing the damage it can to weaken its historic adversary Syria, after Sharaa’s Islamist forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, an Iranian ally, in December.

The United States on Wednesday announced a deal in which Syrian government forces pulled back from Sweida.

The State Department later said that the U.S. did not support the airstrikes by Israel, its ally, which relies on U.S. diplomatic and military support.