Analysis of the news: the sectarian clashes of Syria, the Israeli air strikes and a suspicious peace: what to know

Beirut – More than a week of semi-seizure of sectarian blood in Syria has given way to a suspicious truce, stopping a fight that attracted Israel in an unprecedented confrontation with the new authorities of Syria while raising new questions about the question of whether these leaders can direct the country beyond the fractures of his 14-year-old civil war.

The fighting in Sweida, the southern province bordering Jordan and near Israel, began last week between the militiamen of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim tribes. He quickly involved the Syrian and Israel government forces in a chaotic battlefield that saw hundreds of people killed-some in sectarian fuel vengeance attacks-and more than 128,000 displaced people before a cease-fire supported by the United States was announced on Sunday.

Violence highlights the challenges that the Ahmad al-Sharaa government faces, a rebel that has become a politician whose armed faction led the eviction of the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in December. Since then, the Al-Sharaa Islamist predominantly government has struggled to gain the confidence of the country’s minority communities and has failed to persuade the militias formed during the civil war to disarm or fall under the authority of Damascus.

Here is a ventilation of what is happening in Sweida and why many believe that it could derail the delicate post-war recovery of Syria.

How did the clashes started?

Before the fighting burst on July 13, tensions were already raised after a series of kidnappings and thefts between the communities of Druze in Sweida and near the Bedouin tribes.

While the troubles became an open conflict involving Druze militias and armed Bedouins, the government has sent its forces to stop the fighting. But some Druze leaders said that the government had rather helped the Bedouins; They also accused the security personnel aligned by the government of having committed sectarian motivated ranges, looting and executions against Druze civilians.

Druze Militias launched a counterattack and retaliated with a wave of murders and kidnappings against Bedouin fighters and civilians. Israel entered the fray with an air strike campaign targeting the security forces and the tanks of Syria, as well as the seat of the army and the presidential palace in Damascus, the capital.

Violence left around 1,260 dead, most of them, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a surveillance group based in Britain. He also said government forces have carried out summary executions. The number of deaths includes hundreds of members of state security personnel.

Who are the Druze?

The Druze, which represent approximately 3% of the Syrian population, are members of a syncretic religion which emerged in the 11th century as a branching of Shiite Islam. There are approximately 1 million druze worldwide, more than half of them in Syria, and most of the others in Lebanon, Israel and Golan Heights, which Israel illegally occupies – according to international law – since 1967.

During the civil war, the Druzes were not largely reluctant to ally with Assad but were wary of the opposition, which was dominated by Sunni Islamist groups of the hard line, some of which considered the Druze as infidels. The Druzes have formed militias for protection.

When Assad fell, many Druze celebrated. But some spiritual and militia leaders – like other minority communities across the country – have remained suspicious of Al -Sharaa and its Islamist past, which once included affiliation with the Al -Qaeda terrorist network. They resisted his calls to disarm and insisted that they would only give in power to a representative government.

The waves of sectarian attacks only strengthened their suspicions Al-Sharaa: in March, the factions linked to the government massacred around 1,500 people, mainly from the Alaoute sect, and in May, the clashes in the areas of the Druze-Majjeority near the capital left 39 dead.

How did Israel get involved?

Israel has rooted in the neighboring country since the fall of Assad, with war planes launching a large -scale attack to destroy the arsenal of the Syrian army while Israeli tanks and troops have embarked on Syria and requisitioned the villages near the border.

Since then, he has consolidated his presence and operated more and more deeply in the Syrian territory, justifying the movements necessary for his security and to stop the armed groups, aligned or other, to launch attacks against Israel from Syrian territory.

Israel also imposed what is in fact a demilitarized area in southern Syria, including Sweida, preventing the Syrian army from establishing its authority in the region.

Critics say that Israel engages in a seizure of land aimed at maintaining Syria a weak and fragmented neighbor.

Another reason for Israel’s intervention is its own Druze population, a vocal minority of around 145,000 people, some of whom are used in the Israeli army. In recent months, Israeli troops have offered assistance to the Syrian communities in Druze. And when Sweida’s fights began, citizens of Israeli Druze have demonstrated near the border, calling on the Israeli army to protect their Druze colleagues in Syria.

Despite these openings, many Syrian Druze fear the growing presence of Israel in their regions and have requested diplomatic resolution to their differences with the Syrian government. Others, like Hikmat al-Hijri, a spiritual leader of Druze influential opposite in Al-Sharaa, have repeatedly called for foreign protection.

What’s going on with the ceasefire?

A few hours after the ceasefire entered into force on Sunday evening, the Syrian government evacuated around 1,500 members of the Bedouin family trapped in the city of Sweida. Druze civilians were to be evacuated later. Other truce phases will see the release of held Bedouin fighters and the bodies of Bedouins killed in the fights.

Do the United States play a role?

The United States has been involved in the ceasefire brokerage. More generally, officials of the Trump administration threw their support for Al-Sharaa, raising years old, who had almost stifled the country’s economy and shepherd diplomatic contacts with Israel.

Addressing journalists on Monday in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, American sent from Syria Tom Barrack, said that the Syrian authorities should be held responsible for violations, but “they must also be responsible that” belongs to them.

Earlier, in an interview with the Associated Press, he deplored the murders, but said that the Syrian government acted “as the best [it] Can be of emerging government with very few resources to solve the multiplicity of problems that arise to try to bring together a diversified society. »»

He also suggested that Israel is not interested in seeing a strong Syria.

“Strong nation states are a threat. In particular, Arab states are considered a threat to Israel,” he said. But in Syria, he said, “I think all minority communities are intelligent enough to say:” We are better together, centralized “.