President Ahmad al-Sharaa (L) arrives to receive U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the People's Palace in Damascus on July 25, 2026. (Credit: Bakr Alkasem/AFP)
BEIRUT — Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Sunday in an interview with Al Jazeera that Damascus has no intention of intervening in Lebanon and has "no interest" in a direct confrontation with Israel, while warning that any further deterioration of the situation in Lebanon would have "direct repercussions" on Syria.
"We are not considering any military intervention in Lebanon, but we fear an expansion of the war zone in the region," the Syrian leader said, speaking on the sidelines of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres' visit to Damascus. He added: "We support the Lebanese state's monopoly over weapons, as well as its authority to decide matters of war and peace. Any chaos in Lebanon will have direct repercussions on Syria."
Sharaa also said that his country has "no interest" in entering into a confrontation with Israel, saying the Syrian government is striving to guarantee "lasting peace" with Israel, even as the Israeli army continues to seize Syrian territories beyond the occupied Golan Heights.
"We are working toward a security agreement with Israel involving a group of countries," the Syrian president said in the same interview. "We are avoiding confrontation with Israel and see no interest in it. If the security agreement with Israel succeeds, it will pave the way for comprehensive peace without Syria renouncing its right to the occupied Golan," he continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump has regularly stated in recent months that he supports the Syrian army intervening in Lebanon to confront Hezbollah. This rhetoric is in line with the course taken by the U.S. administration, which has repeatedly tried to exploit the dispute between the new Syrian authorities and Hezbollah (a former ally of the Assad regime), in an effort to convince Sharaa to embark on such a venture, something he has consistently and categorically refused to do so far.
Syrian authorities regularly announce that they have intercepted smugglers attempting to transfer weapons across Syria to Lebanon for the benefit of Hezbollah. In a statement published July 14 by Syrian state media, following the interception of a major weapons shipment, Hezbollah was described as a "terrorist militia," something unprecedented since the regime change in Damascus in December 2024.
Talks between Syrian and Israeli diplomats had already taken place in 2025 in an attempt — so far unsuccessful — to conclude a security agreement between the two countries, after Israel seized new Syrian territories following the fall of the Assad regime, territory that lies beyond the 1974 armistice line established in the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.
