Daily Alert Archives

Making Sure Damascus Learns the Right Lessons from the Suwayda Clashes

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Andrew J. Tabler - Sparked by a Bedouin ambush against a Druze vegetable seller, major armed clashes broke out in Syria's southern Suwayda province on July 13. Newly deployed government forces committed serious human rights violations. To find a diplomatic path out of the bloodshed, Washington will need to increase the pressure for accountability in Damascus - while keeping Israeli enforcement options open in the meantime. President Ahmed al-Sharaa deployed forces in the name of restoring order, protecting residents, and bringing the long-autonomous Druze-majority province under central government control. Instead, some of these forces committed field executions, rape, arson, looting, and other crimes and forms of humiliation. Druze concerns include the state's attempts to deploy outside forces to a province that has been controlled by Druze militias for over a decade. The latest clashes demonstrate that Damascus remains unwilling or unable to control its forces, particularly when deploying to minority-dominated areas. Moreover, reports from Suwayda indicate that the government is still using foreign fighters in its ranks, despite the Trump administration's exhortations to prioritize their removal. The administration needs to press Sharaa on immediately addressing the radicalization and lack of discipline exhibited by the Defense Ministry and security forces. The new clashes will greatly complicate further U.S.-sponsored disengagement negotiations between Syria and Israel, as well as the central government's ongoing integration talks with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have proven so crucial to fighting the Islamic State. Washington's cessation of sanctions and engagement with Sharaa still provide a momentous opportunity to rebuild Syria and move it away from the Iranian-Russian axis. Yet this is being greatly undermined by the actions of government forces, whose composition, command, control, and conduct must all be dramatically improved before Sharaa can build the trust necessary to unite Syria under one stable government for the first time in over a century. The writer, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, is former director for Syria at the National Security Council and former senior advisor to the U.S. special envoy for Syria.
2025-07-24 00:00:00
Full Article