00:00Let's get a deeper analysis from Rinkian Radwan Ziyadeh, Executive Director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
00:07Good evening to you. Syria's interim former Islamist president vowing to protect the Druze minority in Sweda.
00:13Can Ahmed al-Shara guarantee anything right now, given what we're seeing happening?
00:20First, thank you for having me. We have to know exactly the timeline of the events and how things evolved.
00:28The clashes have been erupted between the Bedouin and the Druze on Wednesday, and this is almost 90 people has been killed between both sides, especially the Druze.
00:43And then later, when the government tried to intervene and to help actually account the situation in Sweda and send the troops there, the Israeli government has been intervening, attacking the troops.
01:00This is why, according to different statistics, different organizations, 350 people get killed.
01:07And 190 people from those people are from the government and security personnel by the Israeli side and by the sum of fraction within the Druze.
01:19There is a fighting among the Druze themselves, and then the Israeli attack, the security government.
01:26And after the intervention from the U.S. special envoy, the government decided, as the president Ahmed al-Shara mentioned, decided to withdraw all the troops.
01:39And then the clashes erupted again.
01:41It is very, very complicated, because if the government sit in and sent more troops in the Sweda, we'll get attacked by the Israeli again.
01:51And we've seen the pictures, even the Israeli, they prevent a medical convoys from entering the Sweda.
01:59This is why I think it's much, much complicated that the U.S. government has to pressure Israel to stop intervening.
02:06The Druze is a part of Syria. They are proud Syrians.
02:12They've been in Syria in a hundred of years, and they don't need the Israeli help or the Israeli protection.
02:20And this is why it's a government responsibility to intervene and to keep security and calm in the city.
02:28Indeed, that has been an early statement from Druze leaders that they don't need Israel to step in and help them in this situation.
02:35Ahmed al-Shara, of course, making a statement earlier today, saying that he would protect the Druze minority.
02:42The situation, of course, going from bad to worse in terms of the ceasefire being broken.
02:46And as you point out, Radwan, it is an incredibly delicate and difficult situation.
02:51And I'm thinking back to December when Ahmed al-Shara took power, overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, his movement, HTS, doing that.
02:58He vowed, taking off his garb of war, putting on a suit, going by his real name, and he vowed to unite Syria.
03:07How difficult and how far off does that seem now, given what we are seeing, given the sectarian problems that are coming to the boil right now?
03:17And now the result is very, very complicated.
03:22We've seen the north part of Syria still under the CDF, the Kurdish group.
03:28And we've seen now also in the south where the Druze under the different factions, especially one of the extreme figures, Al-Hijri, who's been inviting the Israeli to intervene on his behalf against the government.
03:47I think the result of 14 years of the civil war in Syria is very difficult and complicated.
03:56It's not only Ahmed al-Shara as a leader to unite Syria, but also for the regional powers, especially Israel and the international community, the United States, France, and other countries, to help the Syrian in this difficult situation.
04:13The mass atrocities have been under the Assad government.
04:16It's very difficult for a small state like Syria to deal with, rather than to deal with the legacy of sectarianism, division, and a collapsed economy.
04:27There is no middle class in Syria.
04:29There is no such kind of economic pocket with the Syrian government to be able to intervene economically in some situations, low-income neighborhood in Sweden and in the northern part of Syria.
04:48This is why I think the government's hand is very tight.
04:53They do everything possible.
04:55But at the same time, they don't see the regional power, especially with the Israeli intervention, helping in this regard, rather than making things much worse.
05:05Israel is saying it wants to defend the Druze minority.
05:10You've pointed out the Druze have said they don't need that.
05:12That's what they're saying.
05:13But there are different people purporting to be different leaders of different subsects of the Druze minority, which adds to the complication of the matter.
05:20Israel perhaps feels it has to act because al-Shara, with his troops, he can't really control how they react, given the sectarian nature of what is happening.
05:29Within the Druze, the Syrian Druze, the Druze is divided into Druze in Israel, Druze in Syria, and Druze in Lebanon.
05:41Within the Syrian Druze, we have three different clerics, al-Hijri, Jarbu, and others.
05:48Only one of them, al-Hijri, who has his military militias funded by the Assad regime before, and there's a thousand of videos, of course, of al-Hijri braising Assad before.
05:59And getting help from the Assad government.
06:02He used this militia to be able to actually control the Suweda, and this is why when he's taking a stand against the government, while other clerics know they're supporting the government and they need the help.
06:16This is why the agreement who broke the ceasefire agreement broke yesterday, it gives the power to those different religious leaders, the authority of the security of the city.
06:28But, of course, if they can't do it, and the Syrian government want to intervene and help, the Israeli will attack.
06:36This is, this is, it should, internal matter.
06:40Israel has nothing to do with the Syrian Druze.
06:42Those up to the Syrian government, our responsibility on every Syrian, and every, every Syrian citizen to protect its fellow Syrians,
06:52no matter their sect, Druze, Christian, or, or Sunni, Syria should be emerged as a united country again.
07:01I think it will, at the end.
07:05Radwan Ziadeh, thank you for trying to bring some understanding for us to this very complex situation.
07:09We appreciate your time, sir.
07:10Radwan Ziadeh, Executive Director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
07:15Radwan, thank you for joining us here on France 24.
