Syria’s interim president has said it is his “priority” to secure the country’s Druze citizens, after Israel vowed to destroy government forces it accused of attacking members of the religious minority in Suweida province.
In his first televised statement since Israel’s air strikes on Damascus on Wednesday, Ahmed al-Sharaa also warned that Syrians were not afraid of war.
Syrian state media reported that the military was withdrawing from Suweida under a ceasefire agreement with Druze leaders. But it is not clear whether that will hold.
More than 350 people are reported to have been killed since sectarian clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes erupted in the province on Sunday.
The government responded by deploying its forces to the predominantly Druze city of Suweida for the first time since Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group led the rebel offensive that overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December, ending 13 years of civil war.
However, the fighting escalated and government forces were accused by residents and activists of killing Druze civilians and carrying out extrajudicial executions.
The Druze religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs. In addition to Syria, there are sizeable communities of Druze in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.
Syrian Druze and other minorities have remained suspicious of Sharaa since he took power because of his jihadist past. His Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN.
Their fears have been heightened by several outbreaks of deadly sectarian violence, including one in May between Druze militias, security forces and allied Islamist fighters that also prompted Israel intervene militarily.
In his speech early on Thursday, Sharaa stressed that the Druze were “a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation”, and that he rejected any attempt for them to be dragged into the hands of what he called “an external party”.
The president said government forces deployed to Suweida had “succeeded in restoring stability and expelling outlawed factions despite the Israeli interventions”, which he said caused a “significant complication of the situation” and “a large-scale escalation”.
“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.
Responsibility for security in Suweida would now be handed to religious elders and some local factions “based on the supreme national interest”, he added.
Source: BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma