Syrian interim authorities deployed security forces across the troubled Sweida province on Saturday to enforce an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire aimed at halting deadly sectarian clashes, even as the country's Druze minority remains wary of the Damascus government's lack of representation.
In a statement issued Saturday morning, the Syrian authorities said the truce aimed to preserve national unity and ensure the safety of civilians amid "critical circumstances", describing the move as a national and humanitarian obligation.
The authorities called on all parties to cease hostilities and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.
The ceasefire agreement involves deploying the country's Internal Security Forces to separate warring factions and halt hostilities in the first phase, opening humanitarian corridors between Sweida and southern Daraa province in the second, and restoring state institutions and ensuring the gradual return of law enforcement in the third.
Despite the ceasefire, the Druze community in Sweida has signaled reluctance to disarm.
"This is a classic struggle between, on the one hand, the government in Damascus where we just have a new government after [former President Bashar] al-Assad was overthrown several months ago, and the Druze minority, about three percent of the population, who don't trust the government and have been holding out for regional autonomy. The government and Ahmed al-Sharaa, the new president, has made this a real showdown. He needs to assert his authority over this region. The trouble is the Druze don't trust him, they've said,'We don't want to put our guns down because we don't have any role in this new government.' [As] the new constitution gives all power to the president, there is really no Druze representation in Damascus that could stop this kind of attack going on," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
The escalation began on July 13 after armed members of a Bedouin tribe in the countryside of Sweida, a predominantly Druze province, reportedly assaulted and robbed a young Druze man near the town of al-Masmiyah, along the Damascus-Sweida highway. The brutal attack sparked retaliatory kidnappings, spiraling into full-scale clashes between local Druze fighters, government troops, and Bedouin militias.
Israel launched waves of strikes on Damascus and Sweida on July 14 and 16, claiming that its aim was to prevent the Druze minority from being harmed.
Druze distrust interim government amid Sweida ceasefire tensions
Druze distrust interim government amid Sweida ceasefire tensions
Druze distrust interim government amid Sweida ceasefire tensions
