Jumblat on Sweida clashes: We reject calls for external and Israeli intervention
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat urged Monday the Syrian government to find a political solution, after dozens of people were killed in fighting between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters in Syria’s Sweida province.
"We reject calls for external protection and Israeli intervention," Jumblat stated, as he hoped for the return of security and stability to Sweida. "We are in contact with the Syrian government," the Druze leader told local Annahar newspaper.
Clashes initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze religious minority and Sunni Bedouin clans, with some members of the government security forces "actively participating" in support of the Bedouins. The Israeli army later attacked several tanks in Sweida Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
- Loyal minority -
Israel has previously intervened in Syria in defense of the Druze religious minority. In May, Israeli forces struck a site near the presidential palace in Damascus, in what was seen as a warning to Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The strike came after dozens were killed in fighting between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters earlier this year in the town of Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement at the time that Israel “will not allow the deployment of (Syrian government) forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community.”
Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most 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.
In Israel, Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
Factions from the Druze minority have been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after former President Bashar Assad fled the country in December during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups. On several occasions, Druze groups have clashed with security forces from the new government or allied factions.
- 'Like unwrapping an onion' -
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.
The Druze developed their own militias during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war, during which they sometimes faced attacks by the Islamic State and other Islamist militant groups.
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since Assad's fall, saying it does not want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces earlier seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
The Trump administration has been pushing for the new Syrian government to move toward normalization with Israel. Syrian officials have acknowledged holding indirect talks with Israel to attempt to defuse tensions, but have not responded to reports that the two sides have also held direct talks.
U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack told The Associated Press last week that he believes normalizing ties will happen “like unwrapping an onion, slowly.”
Source: Naharnet, Associated Press
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