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How Syria can move beyond division, achieve reconciliation

Special How Syria can move beyond division, achieve reconciliation
Syria’s Druze heartland in Suweida has seen a shaky calm since violence between the Druze and Bedouins in July killed thousands. (AFP)
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Updated 18 August 2025

How Syria can move beyond division, achieve reconciliation

How Syria can move beyond division, achieve reconciliation
  • Recent clashes involving Bedouin tribes, Druze militias and security forces highlighted country’s fragility
  • Analysts say the reality of the post-Assad situation is far more complicated than a mere sectarian conflict

LONDON: Eight months after the fall of the Bashar Assad regime, the world is watching and hoping that Syria, despite its fragility, can avoid partition along sectarian lines.

The latest crisis erupted in mid-July in the southern province of Suweida. On July 12, clashes broke out between militias aligned with Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri and pro-government Bedouin fighters, according to Human Rights Watch.

Within days, the fighting had escalated, with interim government forces deploying to the area. On July 14, Israel launched airstrikes on government buildings in Damascus and Syrian troops in Suweida with the stated aim of protecting the Druze community.

Although they constitute just three to five percent of Syria’s overall population, the Druze — a religious minority — make up the majority in Suweida, with further concentrations in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan.




Syria’s Druze heartland in Soweida has seen a shaky calm since violence between the Druze and Bedouins in July killed thousands. (AFP)

Diplomatic maneuvers quickly followed. On July 26, Israeli and Syrian officials met in Paris for US-mediated talks about the security situation in southern Syria. Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV, citing a diplomatic source, said both sides agreed to continue discussions to maintain stability.

The human cost has been severe. Fighting in Suweida has displaced roughly 192,000 people and killed at least 1,120, including hundreds of civilians, according to the UN refugee agency, citing a UK-based monitoring group.

The bloodshed in Suweida has cast a long shadow over Syria’s post-Assad transition. “Syria is already fractured,” Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, told Arab News. “The Druze region is under Druze control and the much more important northeast is ruled by the Kurdish-led SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces).

“The real question is whether (President Ahmad) Al-Sharaa’s new government can bring them back under government control.”

FASTFACTS

‱ Syria is home to eight major religious sects, including Sunni, Alawite, Twelver Shiite, Ismaili, Druze and several Christian denominations.

‱ Its ethnic and cultural mosaic includes Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Armenians, Yazidis and others with distinct identities.

Analysts say the surge in violence reflects the fragility of Syria’s political and social landscapes.

“This violence is not only disturbing; it’s also revealing a lot about the internal dynamics inside Syria,” Ibrahim Al-Assil, who leads the Syria Project for the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs, told CNN last month.

“It also shows how fragile not only the ceasefires are but also the whole transition inside Syria.”

Al-Assil said the turmoil also tests the ability of Syria’s government, its society, and regional powers — including Israel — to guide the country toward stability.

Despite a US-mediated ceasefire declared on July 16, sporadic clashes persist. Residents report severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine, blaming a government blockade — an allegation Syria’s interim authorities deny.




Syrian security forces deploy in Walga town amid clashes between tribal and bedouin fighters on one side, and Druze gunmen on the other, near the predominantly Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria on July 19, 2025. (AFP)

Camille Otrakji, a Syrian-Canadian analyst, describes Syria as “deeply fragile” and so vulnerable to shocks that further stress could lead to breakdown.

He told Arab News that public trust in the government, despite attempts by “officials and their foreign alliesÌęto bolster it,” remains “brittle,” eroded by “daily missteps” and abuses committed by factions within state security forces.

From a rights perspective, institutional credibility will hinge on behavior. Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, stresses the need for “professional, accountable security forces that represent and protect all communities without discrimination.”

Coogle said in a July 22 statement that de-escalation must go hand in hand with civilian protection, safe returns, restored services and rebuilding trust.

The battlefield map complicates the political storyline. Tensions between the SDF and government troops threaten an agreement reached in March to integrate the Kurdish-led coalition into the national military.




Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks during the pan-Kurdish "Unity and Consensus" conference in Qamishli in northeastern Syria on April 26, 2025. (AFP)

Talks were set back earlier this month when the two sides clashed, with both accusing the other of striking first. The interim government announced it was backing out of talks planned in Paris in objection to a recent conference calling for a decentralized, democratic constitution.

The August 8 meeting in the northeastern city of Hasakah brought together Kurds, Druze and Alawite figures and called for a new democratic constitution and a decentralized system that respects Syria’s cultural and religious diversity.

State-run news agency SANA quoted an official accusing the SDF-hosted event of having a separatist agenda and of inviting foreign intervention.

Meanwhile, religion and identity remain combustible. The coalition of rebel groups that ousted Assad in December was led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which was led by Al-Sharaa.




Members of the former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stand guard on a street in Damascus, Syria, on December 31, 2024,. to monitor security and prevent crime in their districts after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad. (REUTERS)

The insurgent pedigree of parts of the new administration fuels mistrust among communities already raw from years of war.

Meanwhile, fear continues to grip Alawite communities in coastal areas amid reports of ongoing revenge attacks. Assad belonged to the sect and promoted many in his government, making them a target since his downfall, even though most had nothing to do with his repression.

A UN-backed commission that investigated violence in coastal areas in March found that killings, torture, looting and burning of homes and tents primarily targeted Alawites and culminated in massacres.




Families of Syria's Alawite minority cross the Nahr al-Kabir river, forming the border between Syria's western coastal province and northern Lebanon in the Hekr al-Daher area on March 11, 2025, to enter Lebanon while fleeing from sectarian violence in their heartland along Syria's Mediterranean coast. (AFP/File)

These developments across the war-weary country have heightened fears of sectarian partition, though experts say the reality is more complex.

“The risk is real, but it is more complex than a straightforward territorial split,” Haian Dukhan, a lecturer in politics and international relations at the UK’s Teesside University, told Arab News.

“While Syria’s post-2024 landscape is marked by renewed sectarian and ethnic tensions, these divisions are not neatly mapped onto clear-cut borders.”

He noted that fragmentation is emerging not as formal borders but as “pockets of influence” — Druze autonomy in Suweida, Kurdish self-administration in the northeast, and unease among some Alawite communities.

“If violence persists,” Dukhan says, “these local power structures could harden into semi-permanent zones of authority, undermining the idea of a cohesive national state without producing formal secession.”

In Suweida, for instance, Al-Hijri, the most prominent of Syria’s three Druze leaders, has resisted handing control to government-affiliated security forces. “There is no consensus between us and the Damascus government,” he told American broadcaster NPR in April.

As for the confrontation in July, the University of Oklahoma’s Landis said Israel’s military posture proved decisive in tilting the scales in favor of Suweida’s Druze for the time being.

Taken together, the sectarian flareups underscore the paradox of Syria’s “local” conflicts: even the most provincial skirmishes are shaped by regional red lines and international leverage.

Against this backdrop, Damascus has drawn closer to Turkiye. On August 14, Reuters reported the two had signed an agreement for Ankara to train and advise Syria’s new army and supply weapons and logistics.

“Damascus needs military assistance if it is to subdue the SDF and to find a way to thwart Israel,” Landis said. “Only Turkiye seems willing to provide such assistance.”

Although Landis believes it “unlikely that Turkiye can help Damascus against Israel, it is eager to help in taking on the Kurds.”

While the SDF has around 60,000 well-armed and trained fighters, it is still reliant on foreign backers. “If the US and Europeans are unwilling to defend them, Turkiye and Al-Sharaa’s growing forces will eventually subdue them,” said Landis.




US forces patrol in Syria's northeastern city Qamishli, in the Hasakeh province, mostly controlled by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on January 9, 2025. (AFP)

For Ankara, the endgame is unchanged. Turkiye’s strategic aim is to prevent any form of Kurdish self-rule, which it views as a security threat, said Dukhan.

“By helping the government bring the Kurdish-led SDF into the national army and reopening trade routes, Turkiye is shaping relations between communities and Syria’s place in the region.”

Could there be more to Syria’s flareups than meets the eye? Ghassan Ibrahim, founder of the UK-based Global Arab Network, thinks so. “It looks like a sectarian conflict, but at the same time, it has a strong element of political ambition,” he told Arab News.

He pointed to the unrest in Suweida as one example. “On the surface, what happened there looks sectarian, but at its core, it’s more about political autonomy.”

Elaborating on the issue, he noted that Al-Hijri had long supported Assad and believed Suweida should have a degree of independent self-rule.

“When that ambition was crushed — by the (interim) government — things spiraled out of control, taking on a stronger sectarian appearance,” he said. “But I still see it mainly as a struggle for power — each side is trying to bring areas under its control by force.”




Syrian government security forces set up a checkpoint in the town of Busra al-Hariri, east of the city of Sweida, on July 20, 2025, to prevent armed tribal fighters from advancing towards the city.

This perspective dovetails with Dukhan’s view that “sectarian identity in Syria is fluid and often intersects with economic interests, tribal loyalties and local security concerns.”

He noted that “even in areas dominated by one community, there are competing visions about the future.” That fluidity complicates any blueprint for stabilization. Even if front lines quiet, the political map could still splinter into de facto zones where different rules and loyalties prevail.

To Landis, the government’s current instinct is consolidation. He believes the leadership “has chosen to use force to unify Syria,” which he adds “has proven successful” in the coastal region “because the Alawites are not united and had largely given up their weapons.”

Success by force in one region, however, does not guarantee the model will travel. In Suweida, Israel’s tripwire and Druze cohesion have raised the price of any government offensive. In the northeast, the SDF’s numbers, organization, and foreign ties complicate any quick military integration.

If raw power cannot produce a durable settlement, what could? For Dukhan, the transitional government’s challenge is “to prevent local self-rule from drifting into de facto partition by offering credible political inclusion and security guarantees.”

That formula implies a real negotiation over autonomy, representation, and local policing — sensitive subjects that arouse deep suspicion in Damascus and among nationalists fearful of a slippery slope to breakup.

Landis agrees that compromise is possible, but unlikely. “Al-Sharaa has the option of compromising with Syria’s minorities, who want to retain a large degree of autonomy and to be able to ensure their own safety from abuse and massacres,” he said. “It is unlikely that he will concede such powers.”




Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi seal their agreement with a handshake in Damascus on March 10, 2025, to integrate the institutions of the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government. (AFP)

Still, experts say Syria can avoid permanent fracture if all sides — domestic and foreign — work toward reconciliation.

As Syria’s conflict involves multiple domestic factions and foreign powers, Ibrahim said international actors could foster peace by pressuring their allies on the ground. Responsibility, he stressed, lies with all sides.

“The way forward is cooperation from all,” he said. “For example, Israel could pressure Sheikh Al-Hijri and make it clear that it’s not here to create a ‘Hijristan’.”

Ibrahim was referring to the Druze leader’s purported ambition to carve out a sovereign state in Suweida.

Otrakji said that “after 14 years of conflict, Syria is now wide open — a hub not just for diplomats and business envoys, but also for military, intelligence and public relations operatives.”




Representatives and dignitaries of Syrian communities attend a two-day national dialogue conference called for by the country's new authorities in Damascus on February 24, 2025.

The previous regime was rigid and combative, he said, but the new leadership “seems intent on pleasing everyone.”

That balancing act carries dangers — overpromising at home, underdelivering on reforms, and alienating multiple constituencies at once.

Otrakji stressed that without full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, Syria will remain trapped “on a dizzying political rollercoaster” and in uncertainty.

The UNSC reaffirmed on August 10 its call for an inclusive, Syrian-led political process to safeguard rights and enable Syrians to determine their future.

Global Arab Network’s Ibrahim concluded that Syria does not need regime change, but rather reconciliation, education and a leadership capable of dispelling the idea that this is a sectarian war.

Sectarian and religious leaders, he said, “must understand that Syria will remain one unified, central state with some flexibility — but nothing beyond that.”
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WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles

Updated 4 sec ago

WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles

WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles
  • Millions of people in Somalia face worsening hunger as major cuts to donor aid leave the World Food Programme with a critical funding shortfall, the UN agency warned Friday
NAIROBI: Millions of people in Somalia face worsening hunger as major cuts to donor aid leave the World Food Programme with a critical funding shortfall, the UN agency warned Friday.
The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the last five years has experienced both the worst drought in four decades and once-in-a-century flooding.
In November, 750,000 people — more than two thirds of the current number — will be cut off from the WFP emergency food program.
That could “tip those worst affected into catastrophic conditions,” the agency said.
“We are seeing a dangerous rise in emergency levels of hunger, and our ability to respond is shrinking by the day,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s director of emergency preparedness and response, in a statement.
WFP leads the largest humanitarian operation in Somalia and supports more than 90 percent of the country’s food security response.
“The current level of response is far below what is required to meet the growing needs,” Smith said.
Government data released in August shows that 4.4 million people are facing acute food insecurity in the conflict-ravaged nation.
With about 1.7 million children under five already acutely malnourished — including 466,000 in critical condition — WFP said only 180,000 are currently receiving its nutritional treatment, a number that could fall even further.
Cuts to foreign aid by the United States and other Western countries this year have worsened funding problems in many developing nations.
British charity Save the Children warned in May that funding shortfalls would force it to shut more than a quarter of its health and nutrition facilities in Somalia.

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’
Updated 34 min 39 sec ago

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’
  • The United Nations on Friday insisted there was no safe place for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death“

GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday insisted there was no safe place for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death.”
“The notion of a safe zone in the south is farcical,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva, speaking from the Gaza Strip, pointing out that “bombs are dropped from the sky with chilling predictability; schools, which had been designated as temporary shelters are regularly reduced to rubble, (and) tents... are regularly engulfed in fire from air attacks.”


Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers
  • The organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla said Israel intercepted its last remaining boat on Friday, after the interceptions of its fellow vessels drew protests worldwide

JERUSALEM: The organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla said Israel intercepted its last remaining boat on Friday, after the interceptions of its fellow vessels drew protests worldwide.
“Marinette, the last remaining boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted at 10:29 am (0729 GMT) local time, approximately 42.5 nautical miles from Gaza,” the flotilla said on Telegram, adding that Israeli naval forces had “illegally intercepted all 42 of our vessels — each carrying humanitarian aid, volunteers, and the determination to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.”


Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
Updated 03 October 2025

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
  • The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X

ATHENS: A boat from a flotilla that had been carrying aid to Gaza until it was intercepted by Israel has docked in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island’s government said on Friday.
The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X.
He did not identify the boat, or say whether it had been among those stopped by the Israeli military.
After registering all the passengers, Cyprus provided for their basic needs and offered consular assistance, he added. Israel faced international condemnation and protest on Thursday after it intercepted most of the 40 or so boats in the flotilla and detained more than 450 activists from Italy, Spain and other countries, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg. It said the activists would be deported.
Italy said on Thursday that the activists were likely to be sent to European capitals on charter flights on Monday and Tuesday. Four Italian parliamentarians were released and due to fly to Rome on Friday.


Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal
Updated 03 October 2025

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said Thursday, as Hamas was still considering its response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the nearly two-year war.
The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages — about 20 of them thought by Israel to be alive — give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. However, the proposal, which has been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sets no path to Palestinian statehood.
Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favors Israel, and a Hamas official told The Associated Press that some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating. Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, said it requires more negotiations on certain elements.
Israel intercepts activist aid flotilla
At least 29 people were killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Officials there said 14 of them were killed in an Israeli military corridor where there have been frequent shootings around the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said they had received 16 dead from Israeli strikes.
Doctors Without Borders said one of its occupational therapists was killed while waiting for a bus in Deir Al-Balah, in a strike that seriously wounded four other people. The international charity described Omar Hayek, 42, as a “quiet man of profound kindness and professionalism.”
Hayek, who had recently fled south from Gaza City, is the 14th staffer from the organization to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, it said.
In Gaza City, health officials at Shifa Hospital said they received five bodies and several wounded people, adding that its staff are having difficulties reaching the hospital as Israel wages a major offensive aimed at occupying the city.
Other hospitals reported an additional seven deaths from Israeli fire. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only strikes militants and accuses Hamas of putting civilians in danger by operating in populated areas.
Israel has meanwhile intercepted most of the more than 40 vessels in a widely watched flotilla carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid for Palestinians and aiming to break Israel’s 18-year blockade of Gaza, according to organizers.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that activists on board – including Greta Thunberg and several European lawmakers – were safe and were being taken to Israel to begin “procedures” for their deportation.
In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian militant was killed and another arrested on Thursday after they carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack on an Israeli army checkpoint, the military said, adding that no soldiers were wounded.
Awaiting word from Hamas
A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that some points in the proposal agreed upon by Trump and Netanyahu are unacceptable and must be amended, without elaborating.
He said the official response will only come after consultations with other Palestinian factions. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the ongoing talks, the official said Hamas had conveyed its concerns to Qatar and Egypt.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war killed some 1,200 people while 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals.
The Trump plan would guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance.
Mounting toll in Gaza
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,200 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. UN agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive there last month. On Thursday morning, smoke could be seen in northern Gaza and people were fleeing the area headed south.
Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter.
While Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly depleted, it still carries out sporadic attacks. On Wednesday, at least seven projectiles were launched into Israel from Gaza, but all were either intercepted or fell in open areas, with no reports of casualties, the Israeli military said.