#Syria #Israel #BBCNews More than 350 people are reported to have been killed in sectarian clashes between Bedouin tribes - loyalist to the Islamist government - and the Druze religious minority in Syria.
Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has said it is his "priority" to protect 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.
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00:00Turn now to developments in Syria where more than 350 people are now reported to have been
00:06killed in sectarian violence between tribal fighters loyalists to the Islamist government
00:11and those from the Druze minority which Israel said it's been defending in its recent strikes
00:16on its neighbour. Well in a televised address Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Shara said
00:22protecting the Druze was a priority for him. He was speaking after Syria's army began withdrawing
00:29from the southern city of Suweda a Druze stronghold where Israel says Syrian forces have been
00:35attacking the religious minority there. Well in what it says was an effort to protect the Druze
00:41Israel launched airstrikes against government buildings in the capital Damascus earlier in
00:47the week reportedly killing at least three people. Well those attacked marked a significant Israeli
00:52escalation against Syria. With its own large Druze population Israel says it intervened to defend
00:58their communities in Syria. The Druze don't just live in Syria but also Lebanon, Israel as we've
01:03mentioned and the occupied Golan Heights. The Druze faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own
01:09unique identity and beliefs. Despite the new Syrian government condemning recent attacks on Druze the
01:16Islamist dominated administration has also been accused of attacking them. Well in his televised
01:21address the Syrian leader said he was handing responsibility for security in those Druze areas
01:26to elders and local factions. He also warned that anyone starting a war with Syria would regret it.
01:35The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities
01:39to undermine these efforts which greatly complicated the situation and would have pushed things to a
01:44wide-scale escalation without the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediations
01:50which saved the region from an unknown fate.
01:54Well to get more on that let's speak now to BBC Arabic's Rami Rahayem who is in Beirut for us.
02:01Good to talk to you Rami. First of all just to set this conflict into context for viewers who perhaps don't
02:07follow Syrian politics as closely. I wonder if you could just start by telling us how and why this recent
02:15conflict between the Druze minority fighters and those Bedouin tribals who are more loyal to
02:21the Syrian government. How that began to flare up in recent days?
02:29This kind of conflict has been and this kind of tension between the Druze and the Bedouins in that area
02:38has been a feature of that area for a very long time. So it's not something completely unusual it's
02:43something that happens that recurs. It happened even decades ago and caused a lot of trouble for the state back then so this is something that happens.
02:55What was unusual this time of course is that it's happening at the moment when the new Syrian authorities
03:01are trying to extend the authority of the state to different provinces in Syria and that has proven to be a very
03:12difficult task following the fall of course of the Assad regime especially in areas where there is there are religious minorities such as the province of
03:22Sueda. So the central authorities the the new government of Syria decided to intervene and to attempt following these clashes to
03:31as I said extend the authority of the state to Sueda to send their own forces and
03:36basically to establish control over that that region and this is what prompted more clashes between the Syrian government forces and local
03:48armed groups in in Sueda and that was followed as you mentioned by Israeli airstrikes in support of those factions which are opposed to the central government.
03:58That's the general situation. It is one in which the the central authority is trying its best to tell people that it is able to preserve the unity of Syria but it is also viewed with suspicion by many in Syria and also facing many challenges that that are making this task much more difficult.
04:20much more difficult and the very important thing here to say is that Israel has been exploiting this situation in a way by saying that it wants to protect the Druze minority in order to achieve its own purposes in Syria.
04:38There are many different views on what exactly these purposes are. Some people have believed that the main purpose is to ensure that a very large strip of Syrian land
04:49close to the border remains demilitarised at the very least and others say that it is perhaps even more to ensure that the new government is not able to establish its authority or to unite the country.
05:04Just another question on that then. There's been a lot of talk about whether there's going to be a ceasefire in that ongoing conflict in Sueda. A ceasefire was announced a couple of days ago and then it became clear that that hadn't happened.
05:18Now we're hearing that there is a cessation in hostilities at the moment. What is the latest that you're hearing on that, Rami?
05:25Yes. First of all, there have been many announcements of ceasefires and at times, you know, it appeared that there are differences within Sueda, within the Druze minority. Some religious leaders would say they support this ceasefire. Others would come out and say there's no such thing and to reject such a ceasefire.
05:47The latest deal is the one we are talking about which was announced yesterday when the Syrian president said that he is going to withdraw the government forces and leave religious elders as well as local groups in charge and perhaps also security forces made up of locals in charge.
06:12These seem to be the broad outlines of this agreement. And the initial reports suggest that it is going according to plan. But I think it's too early to judge. We still need time to see whether this one is going to hold and in what way it's going to hold.
06:28And in terms of that, we, of course, also heard from the interim leader in Syria, a televised address there from Al-Shara. Just tell us what else he said then.
06:40He mentioned the mediation efforts by Arab states, Turkey and the Americans in a very positive way. And he said that they prevented the situation from deteriorating even further.
06:57He said that Syria is not afraid of war, but that they faced a very difficult choice after the Israelis decided to escalate and attack and bomb Damascus and that this choice was, you know, one of chaos, utter chaos and destruction or another way out.
07:15And they chose the other way out. I think his comments reflect basically the fact that Syria at this moment does not have options to confront the Israeli attacks, which have been ongoing, by the way, since the fall of the Assad regime.
07:31They have no military options to confront the Israelis or even to deter them. Their only option is to attempt to marshal some kind of support from Arab states and perhaps even from the Americans, even though, of course, they understand that the Americans are in very close alliance with the Israelis.
07:50And then his speech, I think, reflects that. He said we are not afraid of war, but we chose to avert the kind of chaos and destruction which such a war would have caused.
08:02Perhaps it is a way of putting a brave face on a very difficult situation. In the end, he was unable to exert the authority of the state. He had to pull out the government forces and he had to accept an arrangement that does not include his original intent to extend the control of the state to the province of Suweda.
08:26But he is still trying to convey the message that his priority now is to unify the country and to avoid further sectarian escalation.
08:36Okay. Rami Rahayim in Beirut. Thank you very much for bringing us up to date on all of those developments in Syria. That's Rami Rahayim there watching developments in Syria from Beirut.
08:48Well, now let's turn to our Middle East correspondent, Yolande Nell, who is in Jerusalem for us.
08:54So, Yolande, what we saw in the last couple of days were those Israeli strikes on Syria, a significant escalation.
09:03Now, Israel, of course, said they were doing that to protect and defend the Druze minority in the country.
09:09What is the latest from Israel on all of this?
09:14Well, a lot of analysis of what's happening on the ground at the moment.
09:18I mean, the latest we've been hearing is that things are much calmer with this latest ceasefire agreed in Suweda in southern Syria.
09:25So just across from Israel.
09:28But still some sporadic violence going on, we understand, that the Syrian government forces have largely withdrawn.
09:35Of course, the attacks that Israel launched, there were those very powerful strikes on key government buildings in Damascus, in the Syrian capital yesterday.
09:45There have also been the Israeli military striking on the Syrian government forces who advanced into Suweda,
09:51with Israel saying firmly that they were attacking the Druze community there.
09:56It said, Israel, that it was not just acting to protect the Syrian Druze minority,
10:02but also to protect its own national security with this sectarian violence taking place not far away from the territory that Israel controls.
10:15Israeli forces crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the Syrian side of the Golan Heights
10:22just after we had this takeover, the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad late last year,
10:29and this new government of Ahmed al-Sharad taking over the country.
10:34There remains a lot of scepticism based on the fact that they have this Islamist fundamentalist background.
10:41We had a lot of very inflammatory rhetoric coming from key figures within the Israeli coalition government,
10:47really suggesting that there should be an attempt to topple the current Syrian government,
10:53that it was really a jihadist government.
10:56That is very much an image, of course, that Ahmed al-Sharad has tried to overcome since taking office.
11:02We have seen him with new ties, warming with the U.S., with other players in this region,
11:09and, you know, security contacts with Israel as well, as much as it has remained a real sort of bone of contention
11:15that there have been this presence still of Israeli forces.
11:20Israel is saying it has to maintain a demilitarized zone in the south of Syria for its own national security interests.
11:27And just, you touched on it already, Yolan, but more broadly,
11:31just to again help our viewers through this story,
11:34how would you characterize the relationship between Israel and Syria,
11:40given that they're neighbours, of course, and given what we've seen in recent days?
11:46I mean, the country remained an enemy state for Israel for all these years under the Assad government,
11:54but really there was a sort of an understanding between them,
11:59and that remained relatively calm, the border between Israel and Syria,
12:04at least the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria for many years.
12:09But, you know, there was a lot of fear inside Israel about what would happen when this new government took over.
12:16We saw Israel acting very strongly militarily, going in,
12:20trying to get rid of all of the Syrian government's sort of military assets to reduce its military power.
12:31And that also has, of course, reduced the options of Ahmed Ashara
12:35as he's confronted these Israeli interventions in Syria in just the past few days.
12:42And I think it's all just kind of underscored, rather,
12:46the real challenge that this new government has when it comes to consolidating its power,
12:52when it comes to winning back any trust from the religious minorities in the country,
12:57be they the Druze, the Alawites and the Kurds.
13:01And, of course, there are close connections here in the background
13:03between Israel's Druze and the Druze inside Syria, too.
13:07Yolan Nell in Jerusalem.
13:09Thank you very much for setting all of that into context.
