Syria investors wary despite US normalisation

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to the White House normalised relations between Damascus and Washington but left Israel out of the equation.

- Michael Jansen, Political Correspondent

The traditional slogan used to be, “There can be no war with Israel without Egypt and no Arab peace with Israel without Syria” which the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser called, “The beating heart of Arabism.” Egypt made its peace with Israel in 1979 while Anwar Sadat was in charge, but Syria remains formally at war with Israel. While in the US Sharaa made it clear that this is not the time for such a step although it has been suggested that he might settle for the return of one-third of the Golan Heights which Israel seized in 1967 in exchange for peace.

This has been rejected by Israel. Once in occupation, Israel expelled most of its Arab and Circassian inhabitants who now number in the hundreds of thousands and form an influential political force in Syria. Israel also planted 30,000 illegal Israeli settlers alongside 24,000 local Druze most of whom retain Syrian nationality.