The number of Syrians supporting their country signing a peace treaty with Israel to improve the Arab Republic’s economic and security situation is nearing 50 percent, according to a recent survey by the Syrian Center for Public Opinion Studies found.
The center surveyed a representative sample of 2,550 male and female Syrians of all ages across all the country’s regions on April 18-26.
Sixty percent said they expected a normalization pact to be signed in the future; a surprising 40% expressed support for a peace deal with Jerusalem.
Most Syrians link peace with the Jewish state to economic stability and prosperity, with more than 70% of respondents saying normalization would lead to increased Arab and international investment in Syria, and therefore an improved economy.
More than half of Syrians believe normalization would end regional wars and improve Damascus’s security conditions.
According to the report, Syria’s Kurdish, Druze, Christian and Alawite groups expressed the greatest support for a peace treaty, following the Israel Defense Forces’ vow to protect minorities in the post-Assad era.
At the governorate, i.e. provincial, level, support was highest in the southern region of Quneitra, near Israel’s Golan Heights, where IDF ground forces have been operating since the December 2024 demise of the Assad regime. The IDF has built strong relations with the region’s residents who feared extermination from various Islamist factions in the country.
During his first visit to Damascus on Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack called for a non-aggression agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem, signaling a major regional diplomatic shift.
Barrack proposed the pact as a first step toward normalizing relations between Jerusalem and Damascus, following his meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace, AFP reported.
“Syria and Israel is a solvable problem. But it starts with a dialogue,” he told a group of journalists, adding, “I’d say we need to start with just a non-aggression agreement, talk about boundaries and borders.”
Israel has not publicly responded to the proposal. While Israel and Syria remain technically at war, there have been intermittent discussions about reducing tensions, particularly along the Golan Heights.
