Druze leaders in Syria have signed an agreement handing over their heavy weapons stocks to the government in an attempt to end a bitter round of sectarian violence this week.
Members of the religious minority clashed with security forces as conflict erupted over a forged audi recording, reportedly of its community leaders making scathing comments about the Prophet Muhammad.
The Druze originated as an offshoot of Shia Islam but generally do not consider themselves to be Muslims, while Syria’s new governing party, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began its life as the nation’s branch of Sunni extremist group Al-Qaeda.
The fraudulent recording prompted attacks on the Druze, which the community’s spiritual leader – Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri – labelled a “genocidal campaign”.
Fierce fighting broke out in the Jaramana suburb of Damascus, previously the site of the the massacre of around 1,500 people, mostly civilians, from the Alawite minority linked to former President Bashar Al-Assad by regime-linked militias.
The conflict also drew involvement from Israel, which has a long-standing alliance with its own Druze community (indeed, Druze are heavily over-represented in the IDF), with Jerusalem ordering strikes on Syrian territory.
The first was targeted, according to Israeli officials, at an “extremist group” that was preparing attacks against Druze civilians.
Another, though, landed near to the presidential palace in central Damascus in a somewhat less subtle warning to incumbent leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
In a statement following the strikes, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This is a clear message to the Syrian regime – We will not allow [Syrian] forces to deploy south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community.”
Netanyahu has previously warned that Israel will not “tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria”.
Now, though, Druze leaders in Jaramana have reportedly reached an agreement with the government to end the fighting and hand over their heavy weapons to security forces, whose ranks Druze fighters will now bolster.
Similarly, the governor of the Sweida province – a key Druze stronghold – has allowed government forces to enter the region for the first time since the fall of Assad, marking a significant diplomatic shift.
The agreements come as part of a wider regional realignment, with Al-Sharaa increasingly severing Syria’s ties with Iran in favour of a more pro-Western approach, particularly with regard to Turkey.
This is understood to be motivated by a desire to ease the international sanctions that are bludgeoning the country’s economy. Indeed, the former militant has even indicated a willingness to join the Abraham Accords and normalise relations with Israel, according to American officials.
However, Jerusalem remains sceptical of Al-Sharaa given his former Al-Qaeda affiliation and has expressed concern over the growing Turkish influence in the country, especially as Turkey’s president Erdoğan is a staunch anti-Israel voice in Nato and has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.
