Negotiations aimed at finalizing a security deal between Israel and Syria have stalled, according to four sources. The deadlock centers on Israel’s insistence on opening a humanitarian corridor into Syria’s southern Sweida province , a demand Damascus has resisted.

Syria and Israel had come close in recent weeks to agreeing the broad outlines of a pact after months of U.S.-brokered talks in Baku, Paris and London that accelerated in the lead-up to the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

The pact was intended to create a demilitarized zone that would include the province of Sweida, where sectarian violence in July killed hundreds of people from the Druze, an offshoot of Islam.

Israel Says It Will Protect Syria’s Druze

Israel, which has a 120,000-strong Druze minor

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