The Syrian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that Damascus is prepared to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, following escalating tensions along the southern border.

According to a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP), Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Sheibani conveyed this position during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The two officials reportedly discussed repeated Israeli strikes on southern Syria, with Sheibani expressing hope for renewed cooperation with Washington.

The announcement came as Israeli forces advanced into multiple areas in the Yarmouk Basin, located in the Daraa Governorate of southern Syria. Local Syrian media reported that six Israeli military vehicles entered the village of Saysoun on Friday morning. Additionally, three vehicles reportedly entered a former outpost of the 112th Brigade on the outskirts of Ain Dhakar.

Syrian sources described the incursion as the second of its kind since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, noting prior operations by Israeli forces at the same site, including demolition and excavation.

Sources also told Channel8 that intensive diplomatic discussions are underway under U.S. mediation to reach a peace agreement. One proposed option includes the declaration of mutual non-hostility and a full Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied since December 8, in exchange for Syrian security guarantees along the border.

In a related development, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reiterated on Monday that Israel seeks formal diplomatic relations with Syria and Lebanon. However, he emphasized that Israel will not negotiate the sovereignty of the Syrian Golan Heights in any peace deal.

Sa’ar confirmed that a framework agreement under discussion includes a phased Israeli withdrawal from areas occupied after the 2024 incursion into the buffer zone, including parts of Mount Hermon. The Golan Heights, he added, would be transformed into a “peace garden,” though no final decision on sovereignty has been announced.

Since the December 2024 collapse of the Assad regime, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes targeting former Syrian military positions and expanded its presence in key strategic areas including the buffer zone, Mount Hermon, and parts of the Golan Heights.

Israel originally seized roughly 1,200 square kilometers of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed the territory in a move recognized internationally only by the United States.