Regional and Syrian media reported that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi in Abu Dhabi earlier this week. The encounter, described by a Syrian outlet as a “significant step” in ongoing back-channel contacts, has not been publicly confirmed by Jerusalem but is viewed by diplomats as part of a broader push toward normalisation between the long-time adversaries. Multiple outlets citing a source close to Damascus say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Al-Sharaa are preparing to meet at the White House in September, ahead of the UN General Assembly, to sign a U.S.-brokered security agreement under President Donald Trump’s patronage. Gulf sources told i24NEWS the United Arab Emirates is mediating the talks with the knowledge of Saudi Arabia, and see the accord as a first move toward a formal peace deal. The external diplomacy comes as Al-Sharaa seeks to consolidate control at home. On Wednesday he held talks in Damascus with Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in a meeting attended by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack and French chargé d’affaires Jean Baptiste Faivre; a Turkish delegation also arrived in the capital. According to participants, discussions focused on four dossiers—state structure, relations between the autonomous administration and central government, economic policy and the future of armed forces—and aim to implement a March agreement envisaging the SDF’s integration into Syrian state institutions. The parallel negotiations underscore the new Syrian government’s dual strategy of pursuing regional rehabilitation while stitching together disparate armed and political actors inside the country. A signed security pact with Israel would mark the first direct agreement between the neighbours since the 1974 disengagement accord and could pave the way for wider diplomatic and economic engagement in the post-conflict reconstruction of Syria.