Sharaa tells the UN the Golan stays Syrian, and says Israel walked away at 90 percent

Addressing the 81st General Assembly on Wednesday, his second turn at the UN rostrum, Ahmed al-Sharaa demanded Israel withdraw from internationally recognised Syrian territory and return to the 1974 disengagement agreement that created the UN-supervised separation zone. Al Jazeera reported him asserting that Israel had carried out “500 air strikes, more than 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions” in Syria, and saying: “We reject Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli. We reject their aggressions, which undermine peace and security.” Euronews carried the sovereignty formula: “Any attempts that violate our sovereignty, violate international law, will be stopped. Golan will remain Syrian territories.” TRT World, which is Turkish state-funded, reported him invoking Security Council Resolution 497 and a December 2025 General Assembly vote in which he said 123 states backed a resolution on the occupied Golan. AFP recorded the other half: “The opportunity for peace and security is available to those who wish to live in peace.” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz answered that the Golan is an “integral, eternal part of Israel”.

The substantive disclosure came a day earlier, at an Atlantic Council event on 22 September, and the wires largely under-reported it. “There were several sessions of negotiations with Israel. We almost reached 90% of an agreement but at that point Israel withdrew from the agreement for different reasons that they put in place,” Sharaa said, in the fuller construction carried by Israel National News. Saudi Gazette reported him saying negotiations were nonetheless continuing. The Jerusalem Post quoted his argument against the framework Israel is using: “It is not appropriate that what happened on October 7 sets the policy for Syria. This is not logical, and this brings more security threats.” He asked, “Why has Syria been bombed for two years, every day?”, and called for “mutual respect and good economic and trade relations”. Turkey’s anews reported him proposing an international committee to assess Israeli security concerns and “verify what is only a perception, what is genuine concerns”. Jewish Insider reported he also rebuffed Donald Trump’s call for Syrian forces to enter Lebanon against Hezbollah, and the 2019 US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.

Assessment: The “90%” is a negotiating position announced in public, not a disclosure: one party’s characterisation of a process the other has not described, with no Israeli confirmation in any of the coverage retrieved, and Katz answering only on the Golan. The three damage figures are likewise Sharaa’s count, from an unnamed compiler. What matters is the sequencing. In July he told Al Jazeera the talks were live and advancing toward a security arrangement over the buffer zone; on Tuesday he said they hit ninety percent and Israel walked. Both can be true. Nobody has reported what happened in between, and until someone does, the number’s function is to place blame rather than to measure progress.