US military said to be establishing presence at Damascus airbase in Syria

The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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The US plans for the presence in the Syrian capital would be a sign of Syria’s strategic realignment with the US following the 2024 fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran. The plans have not previously been reported.

The base sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria that are expected to make up a demilitarised zone as part of a nonaggression pact between Israel and Syria. That deal is being mediated by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Trump will meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House on Nov 10, the first such visit by a Syrian head of state.

Reuters spoke to six sources familiar with preparations at the base who confirmed the US was planning to use it to help monitor a potential Israel-Syria agreement.

After the Reuters report was published, a Syrian Foreign Ministry source denied it, saying the report was “false”, state news agency Sana reported late on Nov 6.

The source did not elaborate on what was false.

“Work is under way to transfer the partnerships and understandings that were necessarily made with provisional entities to Damascus, within the framework of joint political, military and economic coordination,” Sana added, citing the source.