Syria's interim president says protecting Druze a 'priority'
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday that protecting Druze citizens and their rights is "our priority," as Israel vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria.
In his first televised statement after powerful Israeli air strikes on Damascus on Wednesday, Sharaa addressed Druze citizens saying "we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party."
"We are not among those who fear the war. We have spent our lives facing challenges and defending our people, but we have put the interests of the Syrians before chaos and destruction," he said.
He added that the Syrian people are not afraid of war and are ready to fight if their dignity is threatened.
Israel's airstrikes blew up part of Syria's defense ministry and hit near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw.
The attacks marked a significant Israeli escalation against Sharaa's Islamist-led administration. They came despite his warming ties with the US and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel.
Describing Syria's new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has said it will not let them move forces into southern Syria and vowed to shield the area's Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel's own Druze minority.
The US said the fighting would stop soon.
"We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media.
The United Nations Security Council will meet on Thursday to address the conflict, diplomats said.
"The council must condemn the barbaric crimes committed against innocent civilians on Syrian soil," said Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. "Israel will continue to act resolutely against any terrorist threat on its borders, anywhere and at any time."
Warplanes over Damascus
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said 169 people had been killed in this week's violence. Security sources put the toll at 300. Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.
Reuters reporters heard warplanes swoop low over the capital Damascus and unleash a series of massive strikes on Wednesday afternoon. Columns of smoke rose from the area near the defense ministry. A section of the building was destroyed, the ground strewn with rubble.
An Israeli military official said the entrance to the military headquarters in Damascus was struck, along with a military target near the presidential palace. The official said Syrian forces were not acting to prevent attacks on Druze and were part of the problem.
"We will not allow southern Syria to become a terror stronghold," said Eyal Zamir, Israel's military chief of staff.
Sharaa faces challenges to stitch Syria back together in the face of deep misgivings from groups that fear Islamist rule. In March, mass killings of members of the Alawite minority exacerbated the mistrust.
Druze, followers of a religion that is an offshoot of Islam, are spread between Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Following calls in Israel to help Druze in Syria, scores of Israeli Druze broke through the border fence on Wednesday, linking up with Druze on the Syrian side, a Reuters witness said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military was working to save the Druze and urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border. The Israeli military said it was working to safely return civilians who had crossed.
Israeli Druze Faez Shkeir said he felt helpless watching the violence in Syria.
"My family is in Syria - my wife is in Syria, my uncles are from Syria, and my family is in Syria, in Sweida, I don't like to see them being killed. They kicked them out of their homes, they robbed and burned their houses, but I can't do anything," he said.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Syria's armed Bedouins say they have withdrawn from Druze-majority city after fighting
Syria Clashes MAZRAA, Syria (AP) — Syria's armed Bedouin clans on Sunday announced that they had withdrawn from Sweida following over a week of clashes and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as humanitarian aid convoys started to enter the battered southern city. The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria's already fragile postwar transition. Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins. A series of tit-for-tat kidnappings sparked the clashes in various towns and villages in the province, which later spread to the city. Government forces were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted Thursday, before withdrawing again. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying that they 'cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security.' 'We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state's orders," he said in an address broadcast Saturday. Aid convoys enter Sweida but tensions persist The Bedouins' withdrawal brought a cautious calm to the area, with humanitarian convoys on their way. The Syrian Red Crescent said Sunday it sent 32 trucks loaded with food, medicine, water, fuel and other aid, after the fighting left the province with power cuts and shortages. Syria's state news agency SANA reported that the convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, but accused Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and his armed supporters of turning back a government delegation that accompanied another convoy. Al-Hijri in a statement did not directly respond to the accusations but said that he welcomes any assistance for Sweida and slammed what he claims was distorted medic campaigns against him. 'We reaffirm that we have no dispute with anyone on any religious or ethnic basis," the statement read. "Shame and disgrace be upon all those who seek to sow discord and hatred in the minds of young people.' The U.N. International Organization for Migration said 128,571 people were displaced during the clashes, of those 43,000 on Saturday alone. US envoy appeals for an end to fighting Washington's special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said the clashes and atrocities 'overshadowed' an initial cautious optimism about the country's post-war transition and the international community's lifting of sanctions. 'All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,' Barrack said on X. 'Syria stands at a critical juncture — peace and dialogue must prevail — and prevail now.' Dozens of Druze civilians were killed in a series of targeted attacks in the city at the hands of Bedouin fighters and government forces. Videos also surfaced online of fighters destroying portraits of Druze religious officials and notables in homes, and shaving the mustaches of elderly Druze, seen as an insult to culture and tradition. Druze militias in return attacked Bedouin-majority areas in the outskirts of the province, forcing families to flee to the neighboring Daraa province. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Syria's Druze largely celebrated the downfall of the Assad family that ended decades of tyrannical rule. While they had concerns about Al-Sharaa's de facto Islamist rule, a large number wanted to approach matters diplomatically. However, the the recent clashes have made a growing number of Druze in the area more skeptical about Damascus' new leadership and more doubtful of peaceful coexistence. —— Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Will Israel ever get blowback for bombing its neighbours?
In the last two years, as well as its war on Gaza and increasingly violent occupation of the West Bank, Israel has launched attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. The most recent attacks on Syria were launched this week, going so far as to hit the country's Ministry of Defence. Of course, the Israelis point to their justifications for the attacks on Syria – principally, in Israel's telling, to defend the Syrian Druze minority. A US-brokered ceasefire has taken effect, but whether it holds remains to be seen. In Lebanon, Israel claimed it wanted to stop the threat posed by Hezbollah. The attacks on Iran, it said, were to end that country's attempt to build a nuclear bomb. And in Yemen, Israel's bombing was a response to attacks from the country's Houthi rebels. Explanations aside, the question becomes whether the Israelis can continue to act in a manner that has many around the world, and particularly in the Middle East, seeing them as the aggressor. Impunity over relationship-building The Israeli argument is that all these conflicts – and the more than 58,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza – are necessary because Israel faces an existential battle that it has no choice but to win. The Israeli government, in its current far-right makeup, at least, does not seem to care if its neighbours do not like it. Rather, it seems to care that they fear it. And as the most powerful military force in the region, with the backing of the most powerful military force in the world, the Israelis feel that they can largely do what they is taking advantage of a weakening international order and a moment of flux in the way the world is run, particularly with the United States under President Donald Trump openly moving towards a more transactional foreign policy. Western countries had previously attempted to maintain the idea of a liberal international order, where institutions such as the United Nations ensure that international law is followed. But Israel's actions, over decades, have made it increasingly hard to maintain the pretence. The world has been unable to stop Israel from continuing its occupation of Palestinian land, even though it is illegal under international law. Settlements continue to be built and expanded in the West Bank, and settlers continue to kill unarmed Palestinians. Human rights organisations and international bodies have found that Israel has repeatedly violated the rules of war in its conduct in Gaza, and have accused the country of committing genocide, but can do little more. Taking advantage No other power wants, or feels strong enough, to take on the mantle the US is arguably vacating. And until the rules get rewritten, it increasingly feels like might equals right. Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, is taking advantage. Supporters of Israel's actions in the past two years would also argue that those predicting negative consequences for its attacks have been proven wrong. The main perceived threat to Israel was the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, and the argument was that these countries and groups would strike Israel severely if the latter went too far in its did escalate, and the reaction from Iran and its allies was, in many cases, to choose to stand down rather than risk the total devastation of their countries or organisations. Iran did attack Israel in a way that the country had not experienced before, with Tel Aviv being directly hit on numerous occasions. But some of the worst-case scenario predictions did not take place, and ultimately, the direct conflict between Israel and Iran lasted 12 days, without the outbreak of a wider regional war. In Lebanon, Israel can be even happier with the result. After an intensified bombing campaign and invasion last year, Hezbollah lost its iconic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and much of its military capacity, as well as some of its power in Lebanon. It is now, at least in the short term, no longer much of a threat to Israel. Israeli hubris? Israel seems to believe weak neighbours are good for it. Much as in the case of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the perception is that there is no real need to provide an endgame or next-day scenario. Instead, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demonstrated, Israel can maintain chaos as far away as possible from its borders, as long as it maintains security the current situation in Syria is an interesting example of what can go wrong, and when Israeli hubris may go too far. Netanyahu has maintained that Syria south of Damascus must remain demilitarised. His first argument was that this would ensure the safety of the Druze minority, thousands of whom also live in Israel and demanded that Israel protect their brethren following violence involving Bedouin fighters and government forces. The second argument was that the new authorities in Syria cannot be trusted because of the new leadership's past ties to groups such as al-Qaeda. After Israel's bombing and some US prodding, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to withdraw government security forces from the Druze-majority province of Suwayda on Thursday, warning that while Israel 'may be capable of starting a war', it would 'not be easy to control its consequences'. By Friday, it had become clear that thousands of Bedouin – and other tribal forces – were headed to support the Bedouins in Suwayda after reports of massacres against them. Al-Sharaa, presumably with the acquiescence of Israel, announced that Syrian government forces would deploy in Suwayda to end the ongoing clashes there, and a new ceasefire was declared on it happens, the presence of a strong state with control over its territory may be more effective than allowing anarchy to reign. Blowback If anything, Israel's actions in Syria will increase its regional isolation and raise eyebrows among countries that could have been seen as potential allies. Saudi Arabia has emphasised its support for the new Syrian government, and Israel's behaviour will add to Riyadh's feeling, post-Gaza, that any 'Abraham Accords' normalising ties cannot happen in the short term. For many countries in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf, Israeli hegemony, especially with the rise of messianic far-right forces in its government, leads to war, expansionism, chaos, and security risks. And Israel's short-term military gains run the risk of blowback elsewhere. Iran's military capabilities may have been heavily damaged in its war with Israel, but Tehran will likely seek to shift tactics to undermine Israel in other ways in the years to come, while improving its defences and potentially focusing on achieving a nuclear weapon. As mentioned, the opinions of regional countries may not be the highest priority to the current crop of Israeli leaders, as long as they continue to have US support. But that does not mean that – in the long term – Israel will not increasingly face blowback for its actions, both diplomatically and in terms of its constant wars, even if beyond Israel's borders, do not provide a sense of long-term security for any populace. The percentage of military reservists answering call-ups has already reportedly been decreasing. In a country where the majority of the military personnel are reservists who have jobs, businesses and families to take care of, it is difficult to maintain a permanent military footing indefinitely. That has contributed to an increasing divide in Israel between a dominant ultranationalist camp that wants to fight first and ask questions later, annex Palestinian land, and force regional acceptance through brute force, and a more centrist camp that – while perhaps not prioritising alleviating Palestinian suffering – is more sensitive to international isolation and sanctions, while attempting to hold on to a 'liberal Zionist' image of Israel. Should current trends continue, and the ultranationalist camp retain its dominance, Israel can continue to use its military power and US backing to yield short-term successes. But by sowing chaos around its borders and flouting international norms, it is breeding resentment among its neighbours and losing support among its traditional allies – even in the US, where public support is slipping. A more isolated Israel can do what it wants today, but without a long-term strategy for peace, stability and mutual respect with its neighbours – including the Palestinians – it may not be able to escape the consequences tomorrow.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Calm returns to south Syria after violence that killed 1,000: monitor
Calm returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, a monitor and AFP correspondents reported, after a week of sectarian violence between Druze fighters and rival groups that killed more than 1,000 people. A ceasefire announced on Saturday appeared to be holding after earlier agreements failed to end fighting between longtime rivals the Druze and the Bedouin that spiralled to draw in the Islamist-led government, the Israeli military and armed tribes from other parts of Syria. AFP correspondents on the outskirts of Sweida city reported hearing no clashes on Sunday morning, with government forces deployed in some locations in the province to enforce the truce and at least one humanitarian convoy headed for the Druze-majority city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since around midnight (2100 GMT Saturday), "Sweida has been experiencing a cautious calm", adding government security forces had blocked roads leading to the province in order to prevent tribal fighters from going there. The Britain-based Observatory gave an updated toll on Sunday of more than 1,000 killed since the violence erupted a week ago, including 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 342 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin. Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida days ago. Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP that "the city hasn't seen calm like this in a week". - 'Totally calm' - The interior ministry said overnight that Sweida city was "evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city's neighbourhoods were halted". The Observatory had said Druze fighters retook control of the city on Saturday evening. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had on Saturday announced a fresh ceasefire in Sweida and renewed a pledge to protect Syria's ethnic and religious minorities in the face of the latest sectarian violence since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. A spokesman for Syria's tribal and clan council told Al Jazeera late Saturday that fighters had left the city "in response to the call of the presidency and the terms of the agreement". Another medic inside Sweida told AFP by telephone on Sunday that "the situation is totally calm... We aren't hearing clashes." "No medical or relief assistance has entered until now," the medic added, requesting anonymity due to the security situation. State news agency SANA published images showing medical aid being prepared near the health ministry in Damascus and quoted Health Minister Musab al-Ali as saying assistance would be delivered to Sweida's main hospital, where bodies have piled up. Inside the city, where around 150,000 people live, residents have been holed up in their homes without electricity and water, and food supplies have also been scarce. The United Nations migration agency said more than 128,000 people in Sweida province have been displaced by the violence. - 'Brutal acts' - US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Sunday that the country stood at a "critical juncture", adding that "peace and dialogue must prevail -- and prevail now". "All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance," he wrote on X, saying "brutal acts by warring factions on the ground undermine the government's authority and disrupt any semblance of order". Sharaa's announcement Saturday came hours after the United States said it had negotiated a ceasefire between Syria's government and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week. Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria's south. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday urged the Syrian government's security forces to prevent jihadists from entering and "carrying out massacres" in the south, and called on Damascus to "bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks". strs-mam-lg/smw/ami
