Why Syrian Druze are placing faith in Damascus and not Israel for security

Analysis Why Syrian Druze are placing faith in Damascus and not Israel for security
Syrians protested in Karama Square, Suweida city, on Feb. 25, in opposition to Israel’s call for the demilitarization of southern Syria and the creation of a buffer zone. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 12 March 2025
Follow

Why Syrian Druze are placing faith in Damascus and not Israel for security

Why Syrian Druze are placing faith in Damascus and not Israel for security
  • Interim government reportedly negotiating with Suweida Druze to allow security forces into the southern stronghold
  • Israel has expressed willingness to defend Syria’s Druze, but many suspect this is a pretext for securing further buffer zones

LONDON: One day after the surprising agreement between the Syrian Arab Republic’s interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, there are reports of a similar pact in the offing between the government and Druze representatives in the Suwayda province.

The imminent agreement allows the Syrian authorities’ security forces access into the Druze stronghold in southern Syria, through liaison and cooperation with the two military leaders Laith Al-Bal’ous and Suleiman Abdul-Baqi, as well as local notables.

The agreement includes allowing the Suwayda population to join the government’s defense and security forces, and secure government jobs. It also grants the Druze community full recognition as a constituent part of the Syrian people.

In return, all security centers and facilities throughout the province will be handed to the interim government’s General Security Authority.




The Druze, who are spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel, are an esoteric Islamic sect that branched out of Ismaili Shiism. (AFP/File)

Background to the developments

The fluid political situation in Syria was always destined to have regional repercussions because it is one of the most strategically important nations in the Near East.

The announcement by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tel Aviv was committed “to protecting the Druze community in southern Syria” did not come as a surprise.

This was particularly so for observers who have been watching the unfolding saga closely since the 2011 Syrian uprising against the Bashar Assad regime.

Several factors must be taken into consideration when attempting to understand what is going on.

Importantly, one needs to remember that the 54-year-old regime of the Assads has not helped to safeguard freedoms, democracy and human rights.

The sectarian and police state gave huge advantages to the Assad clan’s Alawite minority, at the expense of the Sunni majority that makes up more than 75 percent of Syria’s population.




Israel has a small Druze community, and some 24,000 Druze also live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed in 1981. (AFP/File)

Rule under the two former presidents

The regime, given its minority base, also had to rely on the support of other religious minorities in confronting the continuing frustration of the Sunnis.

The 1982 Hama Massacre against the Muslim Brotherhood intensified the animosity and distrust, and pushed the country further down the road of political and sectarian polarization.

However, during that period the strong leadership and tactical savviness of Hafez Assad, who ruled between 1971 and his death in 2000, kept opposition at bay.

The regime had worked hard to reassure religious and sectarian minorities that its heavy-handed campaign in Hama was necessary to save them from supposed Islamist fundamentalism.

Hafez Assad’s shrewd reading and handling of the regional situation convinced the Iranian regime — his trusted ally since the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war — that its vision in the Near East was in safe hands.

That situation began to change when Hafez Assad’s grip on the regime began to weaken. There was first the death of his eldest son and heir apparent Basel in a road accident in 1994, and then his health deteriorated until his death in 2000.




Syria’s interim government announced on Monday that it had completed a military operation against a nascent insurgency. (AFP/File)

Bashar’s Syria

Hafez Assad’s second son Bashar, a medical doctor, who was groomed to be the heir after Maher’s death, became the de-facto leader with most of the political responsibilities, alliances and personnel.

However, Bashar did not have his father’s savviness and expertise. He further lacked widespread respect inside his father’s regime, and with the latter’s regional allies.

Many of his father’s veteran political and military lieutenants were marginalized. In addition, there was a sidelining of many of his father’s allies in Syria, as well as Lebanon, which had become a politically subservient entity.

More importantly, perhaps, Bashar did not gain the respect and trust of Iran, which by 2004 had become a powerful regional player, both in Lebanon through Hezbollah, and the post-Saddam Hussein Shiite-dominated Iraq.

In fact, Iran became the real power broker in both Lebanon and Iraq, leaving Bashar’s regime as a facade of influence.

In the meantime, Israel, which was keenly monitoring the change at the top in Syria, was preparing to deal with more Iranian involvement.




Some critics view Israel’s stated concern for the Druze as a smokescreen for establishing further buffer zones within Syria to protect its borders from potential extremist threats. (AFP/File)

Syria as viewed by Israel

Israel had been reassured of its peaceful borders with Syria since the war of 1973. Tel Aviv always believed that, despite the tough rhetoric, the Assad regime would pose no threat to its occupation of the Golan Heights.

However, Iran’s direct involvement in Lebanon required extra attention but the Israelis were not too worried. They believed Iran would never challenge the US in the region.

Still, Iran’s constant supposed blackmail was not a comforting scenario, against the background of its nuclear ambitions. Moreover, Hezbollah became a serious irritant.

Following the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005, Hezbollah had increasing power, influence and confidence. It had a powerful grip on Lebanon’s politics, and control of the country’s southern borders with Israel.

The 2006 border war between Hezbollah and Israel was a significant development. It ended with Hezbollah turning its attention from the south to the Lebanese interior in 2008, when it attacked Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

The 2011 Uprising

After the 2011 Syrian uprising, Hezbollah underlined its regional mission when it joined the Syrian regime’s army to fight the rebels, along with several Shiite militias aligned with groups in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Syrian uprising, that would deteriorate into one of the region’s bloodiest wars, claimed about a million lives, displaced more than 10 million, and left many cities and villages in ruin.

The war widened, as never before, the sectarian divide in Syria, as well as in Lebanon and Iraq. More radical elements, local and foreign, joined the warring sides, further fueling fears.

As for the Druze community, it suffered like many others, especially in the conflict zones. Several Druze-inhabited areas were attacked or threatened by armed radical groups.




In such a deeply polarized region, outside assistance rarely guarantees security, stability, or peaceful coexistence. (AFP/File)

Attacks and fears

The first deadly attack was in December 2014 and claimed the lives of 37 civilians.

As reported by pro-regime sources, it targeted the village of Arnah and smaller neighboring Druze villages, on the eastern slopes of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

The second took place on June 10, 2015, in the village of Qalb Lozeh in the northwestern province of Idlib by an armed group from Jabhat Al-Nusra, led by a certain Abdul-Rahman Al-Tunisi.

The attackers tried to confiscate the houses of villagers they accused of blasphemy and cooperating with Assad’s army, resulted in the killing of 24.

The worst attacks, however, were carried out by Daesh which targeted eight villages in the eastern part of the Suwayda province in July 2018, with 221 villagers killed and 200 others injured, in addition to many taken hostage.




Several factors must be considered in order to understand Israel’s interest in the Druze. (AFP/File)

The final event before Netanyahu’s controversial intervention, happened after the new Syrian Interim Government brought down Al-Assad’s regime.

Friction in the Damascus Druze suburb of Jeramana, between local Druze ‘defense groups’ and the ‘New” Syrian Army resulted from a quarrel, and the refusal the ‘defense groups’ to hand over their weapons.

The situation became intense as the Army was already facing challenges to its authority in other parts of the country, including the Alawite heartland in Lattakia and Tartous Provinces (northwest), and northeastern Syria where the Kurdish-majority SDF were active.

Israel, where more than 120 thousand Druze live, has always tried to play ‘The Druze Card’ during regional tension. Actually, the policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ has always proven to work in the Levant, and the Israeli Prime Minister felt the opportunity was there to score another political, by portraying Israel as the protector of the Druze.

He is surely aware of the ‘the protector of the Shiites’ role played by Iran, the ‘defender of the Sunnis’ claimed by Turkish Islamists, and of course, ‘the old supporters of Christendom’ by some conservative Western governments. Thus, Israel, in Netanyahu’s calculations cannot lose.

However, the surprising development with the SDF of northeastern Syria seems have to reassured the Druze of the pragmatism of the new Damascus regime. Also, the sad events in the northwest carried two warning signs to all involved:

The first is that the new regime must prove that it is a ‘government of all Syria’; and thus, be responsible for the well-being of all constituent Syrian communities.

The second is that any ‘foreign help’ may be politically costly; and in an acutely polarized region, such ‘help’ would not insure any safety, security or peaceful coexistence in return.

 


Tunisia row over ‘repressive’ transfers of political detainees

Tunisian Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri (C) visits the notorious prison of Ennadhour on April 29, 2012, in Bizerte. (AFP)
Tunisian Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri (C) visits the notorious prison of Ennadhour on April 29, 2012, in Bizerte. (AFP)
Updated 31 May 2025
Follow

Tunisia row over ‘repressive’ transfers of political detainees

Tunisian Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri (C) visits the notorious prison of Ennadhour on April 29, 2012, in Bizerte. (AFP)
  • Weekly prison visits in Tunisia allow families to bring prisoners baskets of food to last them through the week

TUNIS: Several jailed Tunisian opposition figures have been transferred without prior notice to prisons far from their families in a move their lawyers and relatives on Friday denounced as “repressive.”
At least seven political figures were moved on Thursday from Mornaguia prison near Tunis to remote facilities, lawyer Dalila Msaddek told AFP.
Prominent figure Issam Chebbi was taken to a jail in Tunisia’s northernmost city of Bizerte, while Ridha BelHajj was moved to Siliana some two hours south of Tunis.
“They were moved without any warning to their families or lawyers,” said Msaddek.
She called the transfers “a form of harassment” aimed at making it harder for their Tunis-based families and lawyers to visit.
Weekly prison visits in Tunisia allow families to bring prisoners baskets of food to last them through the week.
Msaddek said some prison inmates resisted the move but were forcibly transferred.
In a letter from prison posted on social media, BelHajj denounced what he called a forced transfer “far from my family, my children, and my lawyers, in yet another attempt to break my will.”
He said he, Chebbi and Ghazi Chaouachi were “prisoners or conscience, not criminals.”
“What is happening today is a desperate attempt to silence free voices and intimidate anyone who dares to say ‘no’ to injustice and tyranny,” he wrote.
Since President Kais Saied’s power grab in July 2021, when he dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree, rights groups have warned of a sharp decline in civil liberties in the North African country.
In a video statement, Chebbi’s wife denounced the authorities’ move as “an injustice” and “abuse.”
She said she learned of the transfer during her scheduled weekly visit, and that her husband was informed just an hour before being moved.

Once a French military bunker built in 1932, Bizerte prison — Borj Erroumi — became infamous for its harsh conditions under Tunisia’s former longtime rulers Habib Bourguiba and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
All of the transferred prisoners were defendants in a mass trial last month that saw around 40 public figures, some staunch Saied critics, sentenced to long terms on charges including plotting against the state.
The trial drew international criticism, from France, Germany and the United Nations, which Saied dismissed as “blatant interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs.”
During a protest in Tunis demanding the release of jailed lawyer Ahmed Souab, public figures also condemned the prison transfers.
Souab had been a member of the defense team during the mass trial. He was detained on terrorism-related charges after claiming that judges were under political pressure to hand the defendants hefty sentences.
“We’re seeing a return to the old practices of the Ben Ali dictatorship which aimed at breaking the morale of political prisoners by moving them from one prison to another,” opposition figure Chaima Issa told AFP during the protest.
Also attending the rally, Chebbi’s wife said he was now detained in “inhumane” conditions after visiting him.
She said he was being held in the same room as 60 other inmates, deprived of even “basic standards of detention.”
 

 


Libya protesters call on PM to quit in third weekly march

Libya protesters call on PM to quit in third weekly march
Updated 31 May 2025
Follow

Libya protesters call on PM to quit in third weekly march

Libya protesters call on PM to quit in third weekly march
  • The clashes were sparked by the killing of an armed faction leader by a group aligned with Dbeibah’s government — the 444 Brigade which later fought a third group, the Radaa force that controls parts of eastern Tripoli and the city’s airport

TRIPOLI: Hundreds of protesters gathered in central Tripoli on Friday for the third week in a row to demand the resignation of UN-recognized Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah following recent clashes in Libya’s capital.
Demonstrators chanted “Dbeibah out,” “the people want the fall of the government,” and “long live Libya.”
At least 200 people had assembled by late afternoon, with several hundred more following suit later. Some blasted slogans on loudspeakers from their cars.
Libya is split between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli, led by Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east controlled by the family of military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The North African country has remained deeply divided since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
National elections scheduled for December 2021 were postponed indefinitely due to disputes between the two rival powers.
The recent unrest came after deadly clashes between armed groups controlling different areas of Tripoli killed at least eight people, according to the UN.
The clashes were sparked by the killing of an armed faction leader by a group aligned with Dbeibah’s government — the 444 Brigade which later fought a third group, the Radaa force that controls parts of eastern Tripoli and the city’s airport.
The fighting broke out also after Dbeibah announced a string of executive orders seeking to dismantle Radaa and dissolve other Tripoli-based armed groups but excluding the 444 Brigade.
The government and UN support mission in Libya have been pressing efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire since.
Last Saturday, a separate protest in Tripoli drew hundreds in support of Dbeibah.
Demonstrators condemned the armed groups and called for the reinstatement of Libya’s 1951 constitution, which was abolished by Qaddafi after his 1969 coup.
 

 


Israel strikes western Syria, despite talks

Israel strikes western Syria, despite talks
Updated 30 May 2025
Follow

Israel strikes western Syria, despite talks

Israel strikes western Syria, despite talks
  • Syrian state television said the strike targeted sites in the Jableh countryside south of Latakia
  • The Israeli military said it struck weapon storage facilities containing coastal missiles

DAMASCUS: Israel on Friday struck western Syria, the Israeli military and Syrian state media said, in the first such attack on the country in nearly a month.
It came after Damascus announced earlier this month indirect talks with Israel to calm tensions, and the US called for a “non-aggression agreement” between the two countries, which are technically at war.
“A strike from Israeli occupation aircraft targeted sites close to the village of Zama in the Jableh countryside south of Latakia,” state television said.
The Israeli military shortly thereafter said it “struck weapon storage facilities containing coastal missiles that posed a threat to international and Israeli maritime freedom of navigation, in the Latakia area of Syria.”
“In addition, components of surface-to-air missiles were struck in the area of Latakia,” it said, adding that it would “continue to operate to maintain freedom of action in the region, in order to carry out its missions and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights meanwhile reported that jets likely to be Israeli struck military sides on the outskirts of Tartus and Latakia.
Syria and Israel have technically been at war since 1948. Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and has carried out hundreds of strikes and several incursions since the overthrow of Bashar Assad in December.
Israel says its strikes aim to stop advanced weapons reaching Syria’s new authorities, whom it considers jihadists.


UN condemns ‘armed individuals’ for looting medical supplies in Gaza

UN condemns ‘armed individuals’ for looting medical supplies in Gaza
Updated 30 May 2025
Follow

UN condemns ‘armed individuals’ for looting medical supplies in Gaza

UN condemns ‘armed individuals’ for looting medical supplies in Gaza
  • The group “stormed the warehouses at a field hospital in Deir Al-Balah, looting large quantities of medical equipment,” said Dujarric
  • The stolen aid had been brought into war-ravaged Gaza just a day earlier

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations condemned Friday a group of “armed individuals” for raiding warehouses in the Palestinian territory of Gaza and looting large amounts of medical supplies.

The group “stormed the warehouses at a field hospital in Deir Al-Balah, looting large quantities of medical equipment, supplies, medicines, nutritional supplements that was intended for malnourished children,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The stolen aid had been brought into war-ravaged Gaza just a day earlier, he said.

“As conditions on the ground further deteriorate and public order and safety breaks down, looting incidents continue to be reported,” he said.

But Dujarric highlighted the difference between Friday’s event and the looting two days earlier of a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse by “starving” Palestinians, desperate for aid.

“This appeared to be much more organized and much different from the looting we’d seen... in the past days,” he said.

“This was an organized operation with armed men.”

Since the beginning of last week, Israel has begun to allow a trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, after a total blockade imposed on March 2.

The UN has warned that the aid allowed through so far was “a drop in the ocean” of the towering needs in Gaza, after the blockade created dramatic shortages of food and medicine.

The UN humanitarian agency warned Friday that “100 percent of the population (are) at risk of famine.”

Gaza has been decimated by Israel’s punishing military offensive on the territory, which has killed at least 54,321 people, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures the UN considers reliable.

It has also reduced much of the territory to rubble, destroying hospitals, schools, residential areas and basic road and sewage infrastructure.

Israel launched its offensive in response to an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

On Thursday, “we and our humanitarian partners only managed to collect five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing,” Dujarric said.

“Another 60 trucks had to return to the crossing due to intense hostilities in the area.”

He rejected Israeli allegations that the UN was not collecting available aid.

“It was no longer safe to use that road,” which Israel’s military had asked aid organizations to use, he said, stressing that there are “a lot of armed gangs” operating there.

The five trucks that did make it through on Thursday were carrying medical supplies for the Deir Al-Balah field hospital.

And most of those supplies “were looted today, very sadly and tragically,” Dujarric said.


Syrian minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery

Syrian minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery
Updated 30 May 2025
Follow

Syrian minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery

Syrian minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery
  • Hind Kabawat: Govt to launch ‘temporary schools’ for the children of refugees returning to their home areas

DAMASCUS: The lifting of economic sanctions on the Syrian Arab Republic will allow the government to begin work on daunting tasks that include fighting corruption and bringing millions of refugees home, Hind Kabawat, the minister of social affairs and labor, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Kabawat is the only woman and the only Christian in the 23-member cabinet formed in March to steer the country during a transitional period after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December.
Her portfolio will be one of the most important as the country begins rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war.
She said moves by the US and the EU in the past week to at least temporarily lift most of the sanctions that had been imposed on Syria over the decades will allow that work to get started.
Before, she said, “we would talk, we would make plans, but nothing could happen on the ground because sanctions were holding everything up and restricting our work.”
With the lifting of sanctions, they can move to “implementation.”
One of the first programs the new government is planning to launch is “temporary schools” for the children of refugees and internally displaced people returning to their home areas.
Kabawat said that it will take time for the easing of sanctions to show effects on the ground, particularly since unwinding some of the financial restrictions will involve complicated bureaucracy.
“We are going step by step,” she said.
“We are not saying that anything is easy — we have many challenges — but we can’t be pessimistic. We need to be optimistic.”
The new government’s vision is “that we don’t want either food baskets or tents after five years,” Kabawat said, referring to the country’s dependence on humanitarian aid and many displacement camps.
That may be an ambitious target, given that 90 percent of the country’s population currently lives below the poverty line, according to the UN.
The civil war that began in 2011 also displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million people.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about half a million have returned to Syria since Assad was ousted.
But the dire economic situation and battered infrastructure have also dissuaded many refugees from coming back.
The widespread poverty also fed into a culture of public corruption that developed in the Assad era, including solicitation of bribes by public employees and shakedowns by security forces at checkpoints.
Syria’s new leaders have pledged to end corruption, but they face an uphill battle. Public employees make salaries far below the cost of living, and the new government has so far been unable to make good on a promise to hike public sector wages by 400 percent.
“How can I fight corruption if the monthly salary is $40 and that is not enough to buy food for 10 days?” Kabawat asked.
Syria’s new rulers, led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, have been under scrutiny by Western countries over the treatment of Syrian women and religious minorities.
In March, clashes between government security forces and pro-Assad armed groups spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks on members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs. Hundreds of civilians were killed.
The government formed a committee to investigate the attacks, which has not yet reported its findings.
Many also criticized the transitional government as giving only token representation to women and minorities.
Apart from Kabawat, the Cabinet includes only one member each from the Druze and Alawite sects and one Kurd.
“Everywhere I travel … the first and last question is, ‘What is the situation of the minorities?’” Kabawat said.
“I can understand the worries of the West about the minorities, but they should also be worried about Syrian men and women as a whole.”
She said the international community’s priority should be to help Syria build its economy and avoid the country falling into “chaos.”
Despite being the only woman in the Cabinet, Kabawat said “now there is a greater opportunity for women” than under Assad and that “today there is no committee being formed that does not have women in it.”
“Syrian women have suffered a lot in these 14 years and worked in all areas,” she said.
“All Syrian men and women need to have a role in rebuilding our institutions.”
She called for those wary of President Al-Sharaa to give him a chance.
The West has warmed to the new president — particularly after his recent high-profile meeting with US President Donald Trump.