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A group of soldiers from the Syrian army was documented chanting a jihadist declaration of war on Israel during a military parade in Damascus on Tuesday, prompting a Jewish state minister to issue a chilling prediction.
Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs of Israel, published on X“War is inevitable.” Chikli embedded a video from Visegrád 24 that showed Syria’s new army marching through Damascus. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa attended the military parade.
The video, according to the independent verification of Fox News Digital in Arabic, showed him singing “Gaza, Gaza, our rallying cry, Victory and firmness, night and day. They rise against you, enemy, we rise. From the mountains of fire we make our way. From my blood, forge my ammunition. From your blood, rivers flow.”
Military personnel pose during a military parade, as Syrians mark the first anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on December 8, 2025. (Kast Ashshare/ost)
In a statement to Fox News Digital about his posts on X, Chikli said: “The heartbreaking testimonies that come from our Druze brothers about what is happening in Sweida leave no doubt. A regime that kills like ISIS, rapes like ISIS, and destroys like ISIS everything that is not itself – it is ISIS, even if it wears a dress and plays basketball.”
The Trump administration is pushing for a security deal between Syria and Israel that will stabilize the heart of the Middle East. Al-Sharaa meeting with Trump in the White House last month.
Speaking at a Jerusalem Post conference on Wednesday in Washington, DC, Tom Barrack, who is the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, said that Damascus is not interested in aggression towards Israel, according to the newspaper.
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Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa delivers a speech on the first anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on December 8, 2025. (Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)
“Syria joining the anti-ISIS coalition was unthinkable not long ago.” Barrack said the United States and Syria have eliminated nine Hezbollah cells and several Islamic State cells in recent weeks. “After October 7, Israel doesn’t trust anyone,” he said at the event, adding “That’s why we offered to serve as a peacekeeping force. Verification replaces trust.”
Barrack stated that Jerusalem sees Syria as “the softest game” in the complex security situation in the Middle East. “Syria has no alternative path,” he said. “And neither Israelif he wants to avoid a perpetual military clash on any border.” He said the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between the moderate Sunni states, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Israel, could be extended to Syria.
U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack speaks during a press conference after his meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, August 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
The Associated Press reported that al-Sharaa said at a conference over the weekend in Qatar that “There are currently negotiations, and the United States is participating and engaged in those negotiations.”
The Syrian president wants Israel to withdraw its forces from Syria and return to a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
Israeli forces secure the area around Beit Jann after arresting two suspects and coming under fire in one of the most serious clashes on the Syrian front this year. (IDF)
Israel claims to have taken 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) demilitarized buffer zone in southern Syria in a preemptive move to prevent militants from moving into the area after Islamist insurgents killed Assad.
Israeli troops have regularly carried out operations in towns and cities inside and outside the area, including raids targeting people it says are suspected militants. At least 13 people they were killed in an Israeli operation against suspected terrorists last month.
When asked about his record as a al Qaeda member (the United States discarded its reward of $ 10 million for the arrest of al-Sharaa for terrorism last year) at the Doha Forum in Qatar, the Syrian president said: “What is the definition of terrorism or a terrorist? Saying that I was a terrorist and judging me as a terrorist is political … we saw wars in Afghanistan, and everyone who was in Iraq – and everyone was in Iraq.”
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He added that “Judging people as terrorists must be proven. It has been 25 years since we heard this word in the world, but there is a lot of confusion to understand the word “terrorist”. Terrorists, in my opinion, are those who kill innocent people – children and women – and who use illegitimate means to harm people”. He noted that he fought “honorably”.
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Fox News Digital: “The ongoing security situation in Syria is of the utmost complexity. Israel and Syria, under the mediation of the United States, are in very intensive talks to reach a formal security agreement between the two countries, while the Iranian regime and its proxies are engaged in any armed agreement between the United States and the CIA. It is said that he is very involved in securing and stabilize the situation in Syria, which explains the recent statements of President Trump to Israel to help maintain the framework in Syria.”
He added: “It must be emphasized that Iran’s Hezbollah proxy and associated cells and groups are doing everything to torpedo a security agreement between the al-Sharaa government and the Israeli government. The Iranian regime and associated terrorist groups have tried to assassinate al-Sharaa several times. They are mobilizing terror cells in southern Syria and sending them towards the Israeli border, which is what has triggered ongoing Israeli counterterrorist attacks, as we saw in Bet Jinn.”
An Israeli army Merkava main battle tank crosses the barbed-wire fence in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on March 2, 2025, March 2, 2025. (Under Maria/Afp via Getty Images)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited reserve soldiers injured in clashes with Syrian terrorists in Bet Jinn, where he said: “After October 7, we are determined to defend our communities at our borders, including the northern border, and to prevent the introduction of terrorists and hostile actions against us, to protect the attack of our State and Israel to ensure that all the attacks of the The State and the Druze are safe from all our attacks by the State and the Druze from the border areas.”
He added: “What we expect Syria to do, of course, is to establish a demilitarized buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer zone area, including the approaches to Mount Hermon and the summit of Mount Hermon. We hold these territories to ensure the safety of the citizens of Israel, and this is what obliges us. every case.”
