Al-Sharaa hands security in Sweida to Druze authorities to eliminate Israeli pretexts

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Transitional Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced early Thursday that he had decided to entrust local factions and Druze religious leaders with the responsibility of maintaining security in the southern province of Sweida. The area has witnessed deadly sectarian violence since Sunday, with hundreds reported dead. In a national address, al-Shar’a accused Israel of attempting to provoke war and sow division in Syria along sectarian lines.

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“We have decided to assign certain local factions and Druze sheikhs the responsibility of securing Sweida,” al-Sharaa stated, adding that government forces had initially been deployed to the province to contain armed clashes that erupted due to long-standing disputes between groups in and around Sweida.

He said that while government forces had succeeded in stabilizing the situation, Israel responded with large-scale strikes targeting civilian and government infrastructure, which severely complicated efforts for peace. He warned of the possibility of an “open war with the Israeli entity.”

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Al-Sharaa praised “the effective mediation by the US, Arab, and Turkish parties,” which he said spared the region from an uncertain fate. He affirmed that “Syria will never become a land of division or fragmentation,” and promised that “those who harmed our Druze compatriots will be held accountable, as they are under the state’s protection and responsibility.”

Explaining his decision to withdraw troops from Sweida and hand over security to local Druze leadership, al-Sharaa said: “This decision stems from our deep understanding of the gravity of the situation and the need to preserve national unity while avoiding a new full-scale war.”

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“We faced two options: open war with Israel, risking the safety of our Druze population and Syria’s stability, or giving space to the Druze community’s leaders to restore order in the interest of national unity,” he said. “We prioritized the interests of the Syrian people over chaos and destruction. The best course of action was to make a precise decision to safeguard our homeland’s unity and its people.”

Al-Sharaa strongly criticized Israel, accusing it of seeking to fragment the Syrian people: “The Israeli entity, which has consistently undermined our stability and incited internal conflict since the fall of the former regime, is now trying to turn our land into a never-ending battlefield of chaos, aimed at weakening our people and hindering our national recovery.”

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He added: “Possessing great military power does not guarantee victory, and winning in one arena does not ensure success in another. Starting a war is easy—controlling its outcomes is not. We are the sons of this land, and we are better equipped than anyone to resist Israel’s attempts to divide us.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 350 people have been killed since the sectarian clashes began in Sweida on Sunday. The latest figures include 79 Druze fighters, 55 civilians, 189 government troops, 18 Bedouin militants, and 15 Syrian soldiers killed in Israeli airstrikes.

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On Wednesday evening, Damascus announced the start of its troop withdrawal from Sweida in response to a U.S. request and in the wake of heavy Israeli airstrikes. This came shortly after the Syrian Interior Ministry announced a ceasefire agreement with 14 provisions, including an immediate halt to military operations and the formation of a joint monitoring committee composed of government representatives and Druze leaders.

Israel again struck government targets in Syria and threatened to escalate its attacks if Syrian forces did not withdraw completely from the Druze-majority province.

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