Damascus protects weapons handover handle Druze leaders in 2 flashpoint areas after Israeli drone strikes and cautions about securing minorities
[Damascus] In an extraordinary advancement given that the start of the Syrian uprising in 2011, the Syrian federal government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, revealed on Thursday that it had actually reached 2 different arrangements: one with neighborhood leaders in the city of Jaramana, and another with regional military and spiritual figures in the southern province of Sweida. The offers require the instant surrender of medium and heavy weapons to the state and an increased implementation of army and security forces in both locations in an effort to bring back security and include increasing sectarian stress.
Preemptive Relocations Versus Turmoil
The contract in Jaramana, a mainly Druze residential area east of Damascus, followed numerous days of lethal discontent that left 12 individuals dead in sectarian clashes in between Druze fighters and Sunni Muslim citizens. The violence was set off by the blood circulation of a voice recording considered offending to the Prophet Muhammad, supposedly made by a boy from the Druze neighborhood. The occurrence stimulated extensive outrage and a series of violent fights, consisting of the look of unknown armed groups in the city’s borders– a haunting pointer of Syria’s sectarian civil war.
Hussam al-Tahan, the head of security in rural Damascus, informed The Media Line that the Jaramana contract specifies “the instant handover of heavy weapons and unlicensed individual arms, and limiting using force to main state authorities just.” The offer likewise consists of the growth of security checkpoints and the implementation of Ministry of Defense systems along the city’s borders and farming periphery.
The instant handover of heavy weapons and unlicensed individual arms, and limiting using force to main state authorities just
In parallel, Druze spiritual and politicians in Sweida assembled a broad conference at the spiritual Ayn al-Zaman website– the spiritual head office of the Druze neighborhood– and reached a comparable contract. The Sweida offer requires a “total disarmament,” bring back complete control to state forces over security setups within the city. Furthermore, a “regional auxiliary army” will be formed under the Ministry of Defense, made up specifically of Sweida citizens and led by 2 extensively reputable figures: Suleiman Abdel-Baqi and Yahya al-Hajjar. Both are thought about untainted by the bloodshed of previous disputes, according to sources knowledgeable about the settlements.
The shift indicates a growing determination amongst regional stakeholders to bring back order, particularly after years of lawlessness turned parts of Sweida into a sanctuary for kidnapping rings and narcotics traffickers following the retreat of state organizations from the area.
Israeli Cautions and Regional Escalation
These advancements unfolded versus the background of increased local stress. On Wednesday early morning, the Israeli military released an uncommon declaration revealing it had actually performed a “preemptive drone strike” targeting what it called an “extremist group” preparing to assault the Druze minority in the town of Sahnaya, near Damascus.
Israel explained the operation as “a preventative procedure to secure the Druze neighborhood in Syria,” alerting the Syrian routine versus allowing any hostility towards “traditionally secured ethnic or spiritual minorities” in the area. The declaration was extensively analyzed as a veiled referral to the Druze, a neighborhood that keeps a complex however traditionally cooperative relationship with the Israeli armed force, especially in the occupied Golan Heights.
Syria’s Interior Ministry later on verified that Sahnaya had actually been struck by 2 Israeli drones, hurting numerous people– primarily members of the General Security Directorate. The strikes set off a main protest from Damascus, which identified them a “brand-new infraction of Syrian sovereignty.” Israel has actually kept even more information about the operation.
Sectarian Stress as Political Fuel
These security plans are unfolding at a time of extensive vulnerability for Syria’s southern provinces. Sweida, as soon as understood for its relative calm and detachment from the primary dispute, has in current months seen an uptick in demonstrations over federal government corruption and financial degeneration, in addition to an increase in localized armed factions making use of the security vacuum.
Jaramana, on the other hand, provides an unstable microcosm of Syria’s sectarian mosaic. The current discontent highlights how small justifications can quickly spark into massive violence, particularly in locations with a delicate market mix of Sunnis and Druze.
Whenever the state stops working to supply security and standard services, sectarian identities come hurrying back to fill deep space
Speaking With The Media Line, Syrian political expert Tarek Youssef stated: “Whenever the state stops working to supply security and standard services, sectarian identities come hurrying back to fill deep space. That’s the most unsafe part of the Syrian crisis today.”
He included that even restricted Israeli intervention “offers hard-liners within the routine a reason to heighten their security existence under the banner of ‘defense,’ however in truth, it deepens the sectarian divide.”
Require Calm, Worries of a Lebanese Situation
In an effort to de-escalate the circumstance, the Druze management in Sweida– the “Sheikhdom of the Unitarian Druze Muslims”– released a declaration inviting the disarmament contract, verifying that the effort originated from “Arab nationalist and Islamic worths” and declining “any require separatism or violence.” Independently, Sheikh Karim Rajeh, the most senior Sunni spiritual figure in Damascus, prompted fans to “safeguard the Prophet Muhammad with knowledge and calm– not with weapons.”
Protect the Prophet Muhammad with knowledge and calm– not with weapons.
Regardless of these appeals, worries of restored mayhem stay high. Defense are still extensively flowed, and Syria’s fractured social material is crisscrossed with undetectable sectarian geological fault, any of which might appear without continual reconciliation efforts.
A reconciliation that happened in Jaramana, Syria, Might 1, 2025. (Rizik Alabi/The Media Line)
Observers alert that Syria is significantly looking like a fragmented Lebanon-style system, where neighborhoods exist side-by-side under anxious truces preserved by localized armed groups, while the main federal government workouts small authority at finest.
What Follows the Defense?
Secret concerns stay: Can Damascus truly impose these arrangements? Could this design be reproduced in other restive locations? Or are these accords simply momentary ceasefires, practical substitutes before the next eruption of violence?
In the meantime, Syria appears to be going into a brand-new stage– where regional discontent, sectarian complaints, and local characteristics link in unforeseeable methods. The brand-new chapter is not being composed with hope, however with care– and fear.