Latest news with #troop deployment
Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Syria believed it had green light from U.S., Israel to deploy troops to Sweida, sources say
Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as 'one country' without autonomous zones. Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. 'The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups,' the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on 'purely national considerations' and with the aim of 'stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict.' Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community – a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defence ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria – which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone – and to uphold a long-standing commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed 'outlaw groups' seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. Syria and Israel agree to ceasefire, U.S. envoy says after Druze-Bedouin ceasefire collapses The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a 'misunderstanding' between Israel and Syria. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions. Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. 'It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku,' he said. A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and 'that Israel would not interfere.' A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been 'overconfident' in its operation to seize Sweida, 'based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality.' U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be 'one country,' without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria 'to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force.' The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a 'big mistake' in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reuters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned to Sharaa. With more blood spilled and distrust of Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are 'real fears that Syria is heading toward being broken up into statelets.' The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there 'whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene,' the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralized after Assad's fall, Reuters reported in February. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Sharaa, said he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. 'did not support' Israel's strikes on Sweida this week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Reuters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Exclusive: Syria believed it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida
DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters) - Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones. Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict". Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community - a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defense ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria - which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone - and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions. Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. "It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said. A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere." A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality." U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force." The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reuters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned to Sharaa. With more blood spilt and distrust of Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets." The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there "whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene," the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralised after Assad's fall, Reuters reported in February. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Sharaa, said he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. "did not support" Israel's strikes on Sweida this week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Reuters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel submits third map for ceasefire negotiations, sources tell 'Post'
Israel has submitted a new map for consideration, and meets with the head of Egyptian Intelligence Service amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Israel has submitted a third map of Israeli troop deployment in Gaza throughout the period of the 60-day ceasefire, two sources told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. The head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, Maj.-Gen. Hassan Rashad met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani the same day. Rashad also reportedly held meetings with the Israeli and Hamas delegations as part of the ongoing negotiations, according to Egyptian media. The main points of contention between Israel and Hamas are the withdrawal of Israeli forces during the ceasefire and the distribution of aid within the Gaza Strip. Israel's third proposal of the IDF deployment map during the ceasefire shows even further flexibility on the position of the IDF along the Gaza-Egypt border, between the Morag and Philadelphi Corridors. This proposal comes after Palestinian officials told the BBC that the ceasefire negotiations were on the verge of collapse on early Saturday, claiming that the Israeli delegation sent to Doha, Qatar, was sent only to buy Israel time while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington and had no actual decision-making power. These claims directly contradict Israeli officials' statements that Hamas has rejected the Qatari proposal and refuses to compromise, using "psychological warfare" to disrupt the ongoing negotiations. Over the past week, Israeli and Hamas delegations have attended eight rounds of negotiations in Qatar, facilitated by Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian intelligence officials.
Japan Times
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Ukraine denies North Korea planning to send 30,000 more troops to Russia
Kyiv's military intelligence agency has denied a report that North Korea plans to send up to 30,000 additional troops to Russia in the coming months to aid in Moscow's war in Ukraine. The denial of a CNN report earlier this month citing Ukrainian intelligence and Western security sources came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Pyongyang is ready to "unconditionally support" Moscow's every effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday. Lavrov, who wrapped up a three-day visit to North Korea the same day, expressed Moscow's intention to 'further intensify the strategic and tactical cooperation' between the two sides 'in the international arena,' according to KCNA. Pyongyang has provided troops and weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine, and has pledged continued military support as Moscow looks to solidify gains made in recent months — a move that highlights the speed at which bilateral ties have deepened since the nations signed a mutual defense treaty just over a year ago. But the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence told The Japan Times in an emailed statement over the weekend that it 'has no information regarding plans to increase the contingent of the Korean People's Army on the territory of the Russian Federation to 30,000 military personnel in the coming months.' Such a move would almost triple the total number of North Korean soldiers directly supporting Moscow after an estimated 14,000 were sent last year to repel Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region. It would also mark an intensification of the more than 3-year-old conflict that is now stretching across Europe and Asia. Instead, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency confirmed that it believed Pyongyang is preparing to send military engineering units totaling 6,000 military personnel — 1,000 sappers and 5,000 engineering and construction troops — to clear mines and carry out reconstruction work in the Kursk region over the next two months. 'The transfer of these units is planned to be carried out in batches of 1,500 to 3,000 personnel in two or three stages during July and August of this year,' the agency said, revealing details of the deployment for the first time. Also planned is the deployment to Russia of 50 to 100 units of North Korean equipment, including M2010, or Cheonma-D, main battle tanks and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers. This image taken from Korean Central Television on June 29 shows a screen displaying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touching flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers killed fighting Ukrainian forces, during an event attended by Kim and Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova in Pyongyang. | KCTV / VIA AFP-JIJI A deal on the dispatch of those troops was announced by Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in mid-June following talks with Kim in Pyongyang, a meeting Shoigu said was meant to carry out "special instructions" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latest developments come as Pyongyang on Sunday slammed a joint aerial exercise recently conducted by the United States, Japan and South Korea that featured several fighter aircraft and at least one U.S. B-52 heavy bomber, marking the aircraft's first deployment to the Korean Peninsula this year. In a separate KCNA report, Pyongyang expressed 'serious concern' over what it views as persistent 'provocative and threatening military actions' by the three countries, and issued a warning of 'grave consequences' should they continue to 'deliberately ignore' North Korea's security concerns. Held Friday over international waters south of Jeju Island to 'strengthen deterrence and response capabilities,' the exercises coincided with a trilateral Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting held in Seoul earlier in the day. 'This year the U.S. is continuously posing a danger to the security environment of our state while renewing the records in the number of deploying strategic strike means on the Korean peninsula and drastically increasing the frequency and scale of joint military drills with its satellite countries,' Pyongyang said, adding that the trilateral military cooperation between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul 'is getting more offensive.'
