Syria

The IAEA has urged Syria to cooperate fully over allegations it had been building a covert nuclear reactor at the site – allegations Syria denies.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has said its inspectors discovered uranium particles at a site in Syria it suspects was once used as part of a clandestine nuclear programme run by the former government of Bashar al-Assad.

Last year, inspectors visited and took environmental samples at “three locations that were allegedly functionally related” to the remote desert site Deir el-Zour, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Fredrik Dahl said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Analysis revealed a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations. Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium ore concentrate to uranium oxide,” said Dahl. This would be typical of a nuclear power reactor.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi reported these findings to the agency’s board of directors on Monday in a report on developments in Syria.

The report also stated that “the current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that might explain the presence of such uranium particles.”

The IAEA urged Syria on Tuesday to cooperate fully over allegations that it had been building a covert nuclear reactor at Deir Az Zor.

Syria has repeatedly denied these allegations.

The Deir Az Zor site only became public knowledge after Israel – which is the Middle East’s only state with nuclear weapons, although it has not declared its own programme – launched air strikes in 2007, destroying the facility. Syria later levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions.

An IAEA team visited some sites of interest last year while al-Assad was still in power. After al-Assad’s fall last December in a rebel offensive on the capital Damascus, the new government led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to cooperate with the agency and again provided inspectors access to the site where the uranium particles had been found.

They took more samples there and “will evaluate the results of all of the environmental samples taken at this location and the information acquired from the planned visit to the site, and may conduct follow-up activities, as necessary”, Dahl said on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press news agency in June during a visit to Damascus, Grossi said al-Sharaa had expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future. The IAEA said Syria granted its inspectors access to the location for a second time to gather more samples.

A number of other countries in the region are pursuing nuclear energy in some form. Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.

He also said the IAEA is prepared to help Syria rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.

A French court issues the warrants in connection with the bombing of a press centre in Homs in 2012 that killed two journalists.

A French court has issued arrest warrants for seven former top Syrian officials, including ex-President Bashar al-Assad, for the bombing of a press centre in Homs, a judicial source and a human rights organisation said.

A rocket hit the “informal press centre” on February 22, 2012, killing renowned US journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik and injuring two other journalists and an interpreter.

Besides al-Assad, who fled to Russia in December 2024 when opposition fighters seized control of Syria, warrants have also been issued against his brother Maher al-Assad, who was the de facto head of the 4th Syrian armoured division at the time, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub, among others.

France allows the filing of crimes against humanity cases in its courts.

The Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression said that the French judicial investigation had found that the attack had deliberately targeted foreign journalists.

“The judicial investigation clearly established that the attack on the informal press centre in Bab Amr was part of the Syrian regime’s explicit intention to target foreign journalists in order to limit media coverage of its crimes and force them to leave the city and the country,” said Mazen Darwish, a lawyer and the general director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, in a statement.

Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also noted that the journalists had clandestinely entered the besieged city to “document the crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” and were victims of a “targeted bombing”.

Clemence Bectarte, lawyer FIDH and Ochlik’s parents, welcomed Tuesday’s warrants and called it “a decisive step that paves the way for a trial in France for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier and Syrian translator Wael Omar were also wounded in the attack on the informal press centre where they had been working.

Colvin was known for her fearless reporting and signature black eye patch, which she wore after losing sight in one eye in an explosion during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Her career was celebrated in a Golden Globe-nominated film, A Private War.

Homs, in western Syria, was a major rebel stronghold during the Syrian war and was besieged by al-Assad government forces from 2011 to 2014. The siege ended with rebel forces withdrawing from the city.

The flare-up of violence in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda in July has once again raised fears that the country may slip back into conflict. Media headlines were quick to paint this as another episode in the region’s longstanding “sectarian strife” between Druze and Sunni Bedouin communities. But such framing obscures more than it reveals.

The reality is more complex. While sectarian identities have been invoked during periods of tension, the root causes of this conflict lie elsewhere: in historical disputes over land and pastures, in competition over smuggling routes and state patronage, and in economic collapse exacerbated by prolonged drought and climate change. To reduce this flare-up to a matter of religious hatred is to erase the deeper political ecology and social history of the region and obfuscate ways to resolve tensions.

Druze migration

In the 18th century, the Druze began migrating to Jabal al-Arab, a mountainous region in what was then the Hauran Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire, as a result of contestations among the various Druze tribes in Mount Lebanon. They established villages, cultivated land, and eventually asserted political and military dominance in the region.

The Druze saw their settlement of the area as reclaiming barren terrain — a land they described in their oral tradition as “empty”. But this narrative has been deeply contested by the Bedouin herding communities, who had a presence in the region centuries earlier.

The Bedouin were a mobile society and did not establish permanent settlements; they used the land seasonally to graze their herds, navigating ancient migration routes and relying on water sources that could not be owned privately. To them, these were not vacant spaces but ancestral landscapes, and the Druze tribes were the newcomers.

This inevitably led to conflict. Skirmishes over pasture rights, access to wells, and control of borderlands were a recurring feature of the region’s social fabric. Historical accounts refer to these confrontations as ghazawat — tribal raids and counterraids that were as much about resource competition as they were about honour and survival. Druze oral history tended to depict Bedouins as marauders, prone to betrayal. Bedouin narratives portrayed Druze expansion as a form of territorial encroachment.

And yet, the relationship was never exclusively hostile. There were periods of coexistence and cooperation: Druze farmers hired Bedouin herders, and Bedouin communities relied on Druze markets and grain supplies. But this fragile equilibrium often collapsed during times of stress, particularly during drought, state collapse, or political interference.

A history of political manipulation

Over the course of the past two centuries, successive regimes — from the Ottomans to the French Mandate and then the rule of the Assad family — exploited and entrenched local tensions to serve broader strategies of control.

To reassert its authority over the increasingly autonomous Druze of Jabal al-Arab, the Ottoman Empire turned to the Bedouin tribes and encouraged their raids on rebellious Druze villages. The aim was not only to punish dissent among the Druze but also to counterbalance their growing influence without committing large imperial forces. The result was a deliberate deepening of intercommunal hostilities between the Druze and the Bedouin at the turn of the 20th century.

France, which took control of Syria after World War I, also sought to control the region by exploiting existing fault lines. It gave special privileges to the Druze by establishing the Jabal Druze State, but that did not placate the community.

In 1925, a revolt broke out in Jabal al-Arab led by Druze commander Sultan al-Atrash. Bedouin groups joined forces with the Druze, fighting together in major engagements such as the battles of al-Kafr and al-Mazraa. This moment of cooperation between Druze and Bedouin communities was born out of shared grievances and a collective opposition to colonial rule. It demonstrated the potential for intercommunal unity in resistance.

After independence in 1946, this fragile relationship deteriorated once more when President Adib Shishakli launched a violent campaign against the Druze, portraying them as a threat to national unity. His forces occupied the Jabal and reportedly encouraged Bedouin tribes to raid Druze villages, rekindling fears of collusion and solidifying a narrative of betrayal.

During this same era of early independence, the Syrian constitution set out to settle all Bedouin communities and remove many privileges they had been granted during the French Mandate. In 1958, during Syria’s union with Egypt, the Law of the Tribes was repealed, and Bedouin tribes ceased to possess any separate legal identity. They were also seen as a threat to national unity alongside the Druze.

In the decades that followed, especially under the rule of the Assad family, the state maintained stability by suppressing open conflict without addressing underlying grievances. In the 1980s and 90s, Druze and Bedouin communities coexisted uneasily, having minimal interaction and occasional land or grazing disputes.

This uneasy calm collapsed in 2000, when a localised altercation escalated into deadly clashes in Suwayda. The violence reignited historical tensions, hardened communal boundaries, and exposed the limits of authoritarian stability.

The outbreak of civil war in 2011 further destabilised Druze-Bedouin relations as Islamist factions, particularly ISIL (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front, exploited Bedouin marginalisation to recruit fighters and establish footholds in the Syrian desert. While not all Bedouin communities aligned with these groups, the association between some Bedouin tribes and Islamist armed groups deepened Druze suspicions and intensified the perception of the Bedouin as a security threat.

The massacre in Suwayda in 2018, which was carried out by ISIL and reportedly facilitated by “sleeper cells” in nearby Bedouin communities, reinforced this narrative of betrayal. Islamist manipulation of Bedouin discontent thus served to fracture already fragile intercommunal relations, undoing years of fragile coexistence between two historically entangled groups.

Economic collapse and climate stress

While historical grievances and state manipulation set the stage, it is the present-day economic collapse and environmental stress that have exacerbated Druze-Bedouin tensions in Suwayda. The civil war brought the Syrian economy to the brink, which badly affected the south, long neglected by the central government. For both communities, survival has come to depend not on formal employment or agriculture alone, but on informal economies that intersect and compete in dangerous ways.

In the absence of state services, many parts of southern Syria have become reliant on smuggling routes, especially across the porous Jordanian border. Fuel, narcotics, and basic goods all move through these corridors.

Controlling a checkpoint or a smuggling route today can mean the difference between subsistence and destitution. For Druze factions in Suwayda and Bedouin groups operating on the desert fringes, this has translated into conflict over territory, disguised as security enforcement or tribal honour.

These are strategic contests over mobility and access. A Bedouin group accused of cooperating with traffickers may clash with a Druze militia that seeks to police the area, or vice versa. Accusations of betrayal, retaliatory killings, and road closures follow. What might appear externally as communal violence is, in practice, a struggle over the spoils of an informal economy in a lawless zone.

Compounding this is the region’s increasing vulnerability to climate change. Recurrent droughts have devastated traditional forms of livelihood. Druze farmers have seen crop yields collapse; Bedouin pastoralists can no longer sustain herds on shrinking grasslands. What was once a seasonal rhythm of co-dependence — grazing on open land in winter, planting and harvest in summer — has broken down. Both communities now compete over increasingly scarce and degraded land.

In this context, to frame the violence purely as a sectarian feud is not only inaccurate; it is politically dangerous. Such a narrative serves those who benefit from fragmentation. Portraying local conflicts as ancient hatreds justifies repression and delays any serious efforts to implement decentralisation or pursue reconciliation. It erases the long history of cooperation, trade, and even shared struggle between Druze and Bedouin tribal communities. And it silences the real, material demands at stake: secure land rights, sustainable economic opportunities, and an end to imposed political marginality.

Understanding this conflict as economic and political, rather than a religious or tribal one, is the first step towards ending it.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Syria is marking its first International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, as the country grapples with lingering questions over the fate of the many thousands who disappeared during the country’s civil war.

In a report released on Saturday to coincide with the annual commemoration, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said this year holds “particular significance” as it received a major increase in the number of cases since al-Assad was toppled in December.

Desperate families flocked to former detention centres, prisons, morgues, and mass grave sites to try to find their missing relatives after al-Assad’s removal, and investigators gained unprecedented access to government documents, witness accounts and human remains.

“A limited number of detainees were released alive, while the fate of tens of thousands remained unknown, rendering them forcibly disappeared,” SNHR said on Saturday. “This revealed a major tragedy that affected Syrian society as a whole.”

The rights group said in its report that at least 177,057 people, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women, were forcibly disappeared in Syria between March 2011 and August 2025.

It estimated that the former government was responsible for more than 90 percent of those cases.

“Al-Assad’s regime has systematically adopted a policy of enforced disappearance to terrorize and collectively punish society, targeting dissidents and civilians from various regions and affiliations,” SNHR said.

This year’s International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances comes just months after a new Syrian government was established under the leadership of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa has pledged to address the enforced disappearances, issuing a presidential decree in May that established a National Commission for Transitional Justice and a National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP).

The bodies are tasked with investigating questions of accountability, reparations and national reconciliation, among other issues. Al-Sharaa has also pledged to punish those responsible for mass killings and other violations.

On Saturday, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said enforced disappearances would remain a “national priority” for the country. “It can only be resolved by providing justice to the victims, revealing the truth, and restoring dignity to their families,” the ministry said.

The head of the NCMP, Mohammad Reda Jalkhi, also said that while “Syria faces a daunting task … [the] families of the missing have the right to full and effective investigations”.

Independence and resources

Rights advocates have welcomed the Syrian government’s early steps on enforced disappearances, including the establishment of the NCMP. But they stress that the commission must be independent and get all the resources it needs to be effective.

“Truth, justice and reparations for Syria’s disappeared must be treated as an urgent state priority,” Kristine Beckerle, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a statement this week.

The NCMP must have “adequate resources and the highest levels of cooperation across all state institutions”, Beckerle said. “With each day that passes, the torment of families waiting for answers about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones grows.”

The Syrian Network for Human Rights also said the new commissions’ effectiveness “depends on their actual independence and full access to information and documents”.

“The legal frameworks regulating their work must be formulated to ensure the representation of victims and civil society, and to consolidate the comprehensiveness of justice, from truth-telling to accountability, reparations, and prevention of recurrence,” the group said.

On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the disappearance of a family member was “not just a personal tragedy, but one of the deepest and most prolonged human wounds of the Syrian conflict”.

“The families of the missing deserve unwavering support and compassion to help them search for answers about the fate of their loved ones and put an end to their suffering,” Stephane Sakalian, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, said in a statement.

“Their right to know is a fundamental humanitarian principle.”

Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported that an interactive website titled “Syria’s Prison Museum” was launched on Saturday to collect witness accounts of those detained in al-Assad’s detention centres, including the infamous Sednaya prison.

The platform, put together by journalists and activists, aims to be both a memorial and forensic archive to facilitate the push for accountability.

The United Nations estimates that al-Assad’s government ran more than 100 detention facilities and an unknown number of secret sites.

Under al-Assad, Syrian state officials used several techniques to punish real and perceived opponents, including whipping, sleep deprivation and electrocution.

Local sources report an Israeli operation in Kiswa, where six soldiers were killed by Israeli drones strikes a day before.

Israeli forces have conducted a series of strikes on a former army barracks in Kiswa, southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to Syria’s state-run al-Ekhbariya TV.

Video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency showed Israeli aircraft attacking sites in the village on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a Syrian military source told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army carried out a landing operation in the barracks with the use of four helicopters.

According to the source, the Israeli army brought in dozens of soldiers and an unspecified amount of search equipment as it spent more than two hours at the site.

No clashes took place between the Israeli forces involved in the landing and the Syrian army forces.

The operation came a day after an Israeli drone strike killed six soldiers near Kiswa, and as Syrian officials in the government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa have increasingly accused Israel of seeking to expand its control in the region.

In a statement on Wednesday, Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the strike “a gross violation of international law and the United Nations Charter”.

It added that the attack represented “a clear breach of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic”.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes targeting military sites and assets across Syria since the fall of former leader Bashar al-Assad in December. It has also expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarised buffer zone, a move that violated a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

On Monday, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, near a strategic hilltop close to the border with Lebanon.

Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Asaad al-Shaibani decried the “military incursion” as part of an effort by Israel to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

The latest Israel operations follow deadly clashes in the Druze-majority Syrian province of Suwayda, where 1,400 people were killed in a week of sectarian violence in July.

Israel has since attacked Syrian troops and bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze people.

Syria’s foreign minister accuses Israel of violating a 1974 agreement to advance its ‘expansionist and partition plans’.

Syria has condemned a new “military incursion” by Israel in the southwestern Damascus countryside area outside the capital, calling it a “grave threat to regional peace”, in the wake of the two sides recently holding talks in Paris on de-escalating the conflict in southern Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani accused Israel on Monday of violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement by establishing intelligence facilities and military posts in demilitarised areas to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

Al-Shaibani made the remarks at an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) foreign ministers to discuss Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The latest Israeli military action in Syria follows deadly clashes in the Druze-majority Syrian province of Suwayda, where a week of sectarian violence in July killed 1,400 people before a ceasefire put an end to the bloodshed. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and also bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Al-Sharaa will be first Syrian leader to address UNGA

In the meantime, it was announced that Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa will speak at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September, the first Syrian leader to do so in decades, as the nation seeks to rebuild and reengage with the international community after 14 years of ruinous civil war and the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad.

In the more than 50 years that the al-Assad dynasty ruled Syria, neither Hafez al-Assad nor his son, Bashar, ever addressed the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.

“He will be the first Syrian president to speak at the United Nations since former President Nureddin al-Atassi (in 1967), and the first Syrian president ever to take part in the General Assembly’s high-level week,” scheduled for September 22-30, a Syrian official told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Al-Sharaa, who took power in December after leading rebels on a lightning advance to Damascus that toppled al-Assad, remains under UN sanctions and a travel ban due to his past as a fighter, and must request an exemption for all foreign trips.

In April, al-Shaibani addressed the UN for the first time and raised his country’s new flag at the body’s New York headquarters.

Since taking power, Syria’s new authorities have gained regional and international support, both diplomatic and financial, securing critical economic lifelines to reconstruct the devastated country.

Damascus signed 12 agreements worth $14bn this month, including a $4bn agreement with Qatar’s UCC Holding to build a new airport and a $2bn deal to establish a subway in Damascus with the national investment corporation of the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Sharaa met United States President Donald Trump in May in Saudi Arabia, a week after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on his first trip to the West.

Both the US and the European Union have lifted longstanding sanctions on Syria.

Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, a week before the UNGA meeting.

They will be the first to take place under the country’s new authorities after the fall of al-Assad. One-third of the 210 seats will be appointed by al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected.

In early August, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) exchanged fire with Syrian government forces near Manbij in Kurdish-majority northeastern Syria. The tensions in the north came just weeks after bloodshed in the south’s Suwayda governorate killed more than 1,400 people and displaced nearly 175,000. The violence between Druze and Sunni Bedouin groups continued for more than a week and has still not fully abated.

In March, groups loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad clashed with government forces and allied armed factions in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartus, dominated by the Alawite community. From 1,400 to 1,700 people were killed in the bloodshed, most of them civilians; 128,500 people were displaced.

The recurring violence has exposed the raw sectarianism that al-Assad once manipulated to maintain power. Now, in his absence, those divisions are metastasising, fuelled by a decade of unresolved grievances, land disputes and the proliferation of armed groups.

President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who took power after al-Assad’s ouster, has so far failed to build trust across all factions, as his main focus has been international normalisation and economic development. His Islamist leanings are causing alarm among minorities, including the Druze, Alawites, Christians and Kurds, who fear that his inability to rein in the various armed factions may result in more violence.

September’s elections may offer procedural legitimacy to al-Sharaa’s government, but without genuine security and reconciliation, they risk deepening the existing divides and reinforcing a power structure that benefits a select few at the expense of a truly unified nation.

Reconstruction and international recognition

Since coming to power, al-Sharaa has signalled that his national strategy is overwhelmingly focused on reconstruction and economic development. This is where his provisional government has concentrated its efforts.

In May, al-Sharaa spoke at an event in the country’s second biggest city, Aleppo, urging Syrians to join in the reconstruction effort. “Our war with the tyrants has ended, and our battle against poverty has begun,” he declared in his speech.

To unlock the economic potential of the country, al-Sharaa has sought to gain international recognition. With the help of Gulf states, the Syrian president has been able to achieve a major diplomatic victory: the lifting of sanctions and the removal of the armed group he headed, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, from the list of “foreign terrorist organisations” by the United States government.

US President Donald Trump’s administration also backed the potential integration of the SDF into the new security apparatus. From Washington’s perspective, engaging with the new authorities in Damascus can help reduce Iranian influence and prevent Syria from becoming a corridor for Hezbollah and other proxies. From al-Sharaa’s perspective this is a chance to secure international recognition and legitimacy.

Syria’s neighbour Turkiye is also an important player in al-Sharaa’s national strategy. It is providing noncombat military support – training, advice and technical assistance – to help rebuild Syria’s security infrastructure. It also is looking at a major role in the reconstruction effort.

This month, Turkiye began supplying Syria with natural gas, helping to address the country’s energy crisis in the north.

Meanwhile, Gulf states have pledged to invest heavily in Syria to help stabilise its economy. In July, Saudi Arabia announced $6.4bn in investments in real estate and infrastructure projects. Two weeks later, the Syrian government signed deals worth $14bn with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the fields of public transport and real estate.

However, many critics would argue that while economic support is essential for rebuilding, it cannot alone guarantee stability. The danger is that money and development may paper over deep-seated resentments and divisions that could reignite into future conflicts. The real challenge for the new Syrian government is to find a way to balance the urgent need for economic recovery with the equally crucial need to address people’s grievances.

Legislative elections

One way to address tensions is to gain public trust through a democratic electoral process. Al-Sharaa has called for national elections in September, but ordinary Syrians will not be able to cast their votes. That is because 140 of the 210 seats will be chosen by local electoral committees while 70 will be appointed directly by the president. There will be no seats filled by popular vote.

This format is a straightforward political calculation. It provides the new leadership with the assurance of a controlled outcome and avoids the challenges of organising a nationwide vote at a time when Damascus does not have full control over all territories and security cannot be guaranteed.

But this electoral process is likely to be met with mistrust from some Syrians, especially from minority communities, as they will see it as favouring the Sunni majority. Some may choose to boycott the elections, declare them illegitimate or find alternative ways to express their profound displeasure with a system that denies them a meaningful voice.

The US and the European Union will monitor the election carefully and will likely take a critical stance if it fails to establish a truly inclusive and representative parliament. This will likely complicate the new regime’s budding international relations and hinder its efforts to gain full diplomatic recognition and support.

The more pressing problem for Damascus will be that the elections will not help heal the country’s deep wounds at a time of continuing sectarian tensions. That is why Syria needs a nation-wide reconciliation process.

Justice and accountability

Syria’s interim government has yet to articulate a compelling vision for justice and accountability. War crimes under al-Assad – which include mass detentions, torture and chemical attacks – remain unaddressed. There have been promises to hold people accountable for sectarian massacres, but no concrete steps have been taken.

The absence of accountability is not just a moral failure. It’s a strategic one. Without a legal framework to hold perpetrators accountable, Syria’s wounds will fester.

Syria needs a new social contract, and the people will no longer tolerate the old foundations of impunity that defined the past regime.

The process of justice and accountability must be impartial and transparent. Given the deep-seated sectarian divisions and the decades of one-family rule by the al-Assad regime, which drew heavily on the Alawite minority, the new government cannot be the sole arbiter of justice. A national, state-led process could easily be accused of being a form of retribution against a particular sect or those associated with the old regime. To counter this perception and ensure fairness, Syria would greatly benefit from the assistance of the international community, particularly the United Nations.

An entity like the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) could be a powerful tool. Instead of focusing solely on punishment, a TRC would prioritise uncovering the truth about past crimes, including mass killings, torture and embezzlement.

This process could help Syria move away from a solely punitive justice system that purges rather than reconciles. It could help the new regime build public trust and establish a new social contract based on a shared vision rather than competing narratives. It could also help dampen demands for federalism, which risk weakening the country and undermining its security, stability and economic development.

Syria’s transition was never going to be easy. But the current trajectory – economic development undermined by potential sectarian fragmentation and militarised politics – risks turning post-Assad Syria into a failed state.

The international community can play a critical role, but its approach must evolve beyond merely applauding procedural milestones. It must support civil society and demand accountability for crimes past and present. Otherwise, Syria’s future will look hauntingly like its past with new leaders but the same old cycles of violence and instability.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The clashes in March included murder, torture and other ‘inhumane acts’ that UN investigators say amount to war crimes.

War crimes were likely committed by members of interim government forces and fighters aligned with former President Bashar al-Assad during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal areas in March, according to a United Nations report.

Some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were reported killed during the violence that primarily targeted Alawite communities, and reports of violations have continued, according to the report released on Thursday by the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry.

“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the commission, in a statement.

Torture, killings and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead were documented by the UN team, which based its research on more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as visits to mass grave sites.

“The violations included acts that likely amount to war crimes,” the UN investigators said.

Alawite men were separated from women and children, then led away and killed, the report found.

“Bodies were left in the streets for days, with families prevented from conducting burials in accordance with religious rites, while others were buried in mass graves without proper documentation,” the commission said.

Hospitals became overwhelmed as a result of the killings.

The commission found that even while the interim government’s forces sought to stop violations and protect civilians, certain members “extrajudicially executed, tortured and ill-treated civilians in multiple [Alawite] majority villages and neighbourhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic”.

However, the report said the commission “found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks”. It also found that pro-Assad armed groups had committed “acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes” during the violence.

“We call on the interim authorities to continue to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation or rank,” Pinheiro said.

“While dozens of alleged perpetrators of violations have reportedly since been arrested, the scale of the violence documented in our report warrants expanding such efforts.”

The incidents in the coastal region were the worst violence in Syria since al-Assad was toppled last December, prompting the interim government to name a fact-finding committee.

The committee in July said it had identified 298 suspects implicated in serious violations during the violence in the country’s Alawite heartland.

The committee’s report then stated there was no evidence that Syria’s military leadership ordered attacks on the Alawite community.

Syrian authorities have accused gunmen loyal to al-Assad of instigating the violence, launching deadly attacks that killed dozens of security personnel.

According to the commission, the deadly attacks by pro-former government fighters began after Syrian interim authorities launched an arrest operation on March 6.

The government committee said 238 members of the army and security forces were killed in the attacks in the provinces of Tartous, Latakia and Hama.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is trying to attract foreign investment as Syria’s economy lies in ruins.

Jordan will host a Jordanian-Syrian-American meeting on Tuesday to discuss ways to support the rebuilding of Syria, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates says, as Damascus seeks investment deals with international companies to revive its war-ravaged economy.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and United States envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack are expected to attend, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s fledgling government has been grappling with the fallout from sectarian violence between Bedouin and Druze fighters in the southern province of Suwayda as well as Israeli strikes on Syrian soldiers and the capital, Damascus.

Syria’s economy remains in tatters after nearly 14 years of war and the ouster of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Jordan made its announcement after Damascus signed 12 agreements worth $14bn on Wednesday, including a $4bn agreement with Qatar’s UCC Holding to build a new airport and a $2bn deal to establish a subway in Damascus with the national investment corporation of the United Arab Emirates.

The projects “will extend across Syria and represent a qualitative shift in infrastructure and economic life”, Talal al-Hilali, head of the Syrian Investment Authority, said during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Damascus.

He described the agreements as “a turning point” for Syria’s future.

Al-Sharaa and Barrack were both present at the signing ceremony, according to Syria’s official SANA news agency.

The United Nations has put Syria’s post-war reconstruction costs at more than $400bn.

Syria’s new authorities have worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure across the country after the US and the European Union lifted sanctions on Syria in the wake of al-Assad’s ouster.

Other major developments on the investment front include the $2bn Damascus Towers project for residential high rises, signed with the Italian-based company UBAKO; a $500m deal for the Baramkeh Towers project, also in Damascus; and another $60m agreement for Baramkeh Mall.

Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would invest about $3bn in real estate and infrastructure projects in Syria.

In May, Damascus signed a $7bn energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and US companies as it seeks to revive its crippled power sector.

Government source says recent Kurdish-led conference ‘dealt blow’ to talks on implementing a March integration deal.

Syria’s new government will not take part in planned meetings with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria’s state news agency has reported, as tensions mount between the two sides.

SANA’s report on Saturday cast doubt over an integration deal signed this year by the armed group and Syria’s interim government, which took over after the overthrow of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Quoting an unnamed government source, the news agency said the government wants future negotiations to be held in the Syrian capital, Damascus, “as it is the legitimate and national address for dialogue among Syrians”.

The SDF was the main force allied with the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated ISIL (ISIS) in 2019. In March, the SDF signed a deal with the new government to join Syria’s state institutions.

The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces that hold a quarter of Syria and regional Kurdish governing bodies to integrate with Damascus.

However, the agreement did not specify how the SDF will be merged with Syria’s armed forces. The group has previously said its forces must join as a bloc while the government wants them to join as individuals.

Saturday’s report comes a day after the Kurdish administration held a conference involving several Syrian minority communities, the first such event since al-Assad’s removal from power.

The conference’s final statement called for “a democratic constitution that … establishes a decentralised state” and guarantees the participation of all components of Syrian society.

Damascus has previously rejected calls for decentralisation.

In its report on Saturday, SANA said the government “stresses that the SDF conference dealt a blow to the ongoing negotiation efforts” towards implementing the March agreement.

“Accordingly, the government will not participate in any meetings scheduled in Paris, nor will it sit at the negotiating table with any side seeking to revive the era of the deposed regime under any name or cover,” the report said.

Participants in the Kurdish-organised conference also criticised the government over sectarian clashes in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda and the coastal region.

“The current constitutional declaration does not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people. … It should be reviewed to ensure a wider participatory process and a fair representation in the transitional period,” the conference’s final statement read.

The dispute is the latest in a recent conflict between the Syrian administration and the SDF after clashes between the group and government forces this month.

The SDF on Saturday accused government-backed factions of attacking areas in northeastern Syria more than 22 times.

It said it had exercised restraint during such “aggressions” but the continuation of attacks “threatens mutual trust and undermines understandings”.

Syria’s fledgling government has sought investment to reconstruct the country after its devastating yearslong civil war.

Syria has signed a series of investment deals with international companies, covering 12 major strategic projects in infrastructure, transportation and real estate valued at a total of $14bn, the latest lifeline aimed at reviving its war-ravaged economy.

The plans included a $4bn investment project for Damascus airport signed with Qatar’s UCC Holding and a $2bn deal with the United Arab Emirates national investment corporation to establish a metro in the Syrian capital, Talal al-Hilali, head of the Syrian Investment Authority, said during the ceremony at the presidential palace in Damascus on Wednesday.

It’s a welcome development for President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government as it has been grappling with the heavy fallout from sectarian violence that broke out on July 13 in the southern province of Suwayda between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Government troops were deployed to quell the conflict. The bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Other major developments on the investment front destined for Damascus include the $2bn Damascus Towers project signed with the Italian-based company UBAKO, a $500m deal for the Baramkeh Towers project and another $60m agreement for Baramkeh Mall.

Since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December in a lightning rebel offensive, Syria’s new authorities have worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed in the country’s devastating, nearly 14-year-long civil war.

The projects “will extend across Syria and represent a qualitative shift in infrastructure and economic life”, al-Hilali said on Wednesday, adding that the agreements were “a turning point” for Syria’s future.

Al-Sharaa and United States special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack were both present at the signing ceremony, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Barrack congratulated Syrian authorities on “another great accomplishment”, saying they will witness the rise of a “new hub” in “trade and prosperity”.

The United Nations has put Syria’s post-war reconstruction costs at more than $400bn. Several deals have already been announced.

Last month, Saudi Arabia signed major investment and partnership deals with Syria, valued at $6.4bn.

Also in July, Syria signed an $800m deal with UAE-based company DP World to develop the port of Tartous, state media reported.

In May, Syria signed a $7bn energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and US companies as it seeks to revive its crippled power sector.

The US and European Union have recently lifted sanctions on Syria in the wake of al-Assad’s ouster, opening the nation to further investment and trade deals.

The Syrian Democratic Forces allege that Damascus-linked factions attacked four of its positions early on Monday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have said that armed factions associated with the country’s security forces have attacked some of its positions in the northern province of Aleppo, as efforts by Syria’s fledgling government to unify the nation have been hit on several fronts.

In a post on X, the group, which controls much of northeastern Syria, claimed the incident took place early on Monday morning in the Deir Hafer area.

The allegation comes just months after the SDF and the Syrian interim government signed a landmark integration agreement in March.

Government-linked factions launched an assault on four of the SDF’s positions in the village of Al-Imam at 3am on Monday morning, the SDF said, noting that the ensuing clashes lasted for 20 minutes.

“We hold the Damascus government fully responsible for this behaviour, and reaffirm that our forces are now more prepared than ever to exercise their legitimate right to respond with full force and determination,” the SDF added.

The latest incident came after the Syrian government accused the SDF of injuring four soldiers and three civilians in the northern city of Manbij on Saturday.

The Defence Ministry called the attack “irresponsible”, saying it had been carried out for “unknown reasons”, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Meanwhile, the SDF, which allied with the United States to help defeat ISIL (ISIS) in the region, blamed the Syrian government, saying it had responded to an unprovoked artillery assault against civilians.

Such skirmishes have cast a shadow over the integration pact the SDF made with Damascus in March, following the fall of longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December.

As part of efforts to reunify the country after almost 14 years of ruinous war, which killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions, the agreement seeks to merge Kurdish-led military and civilian institutions with the state.

As well as its clashes with the SDF, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s new government is grappling with the fallout from sectarian violence that broke out on July 13 in the southern province of Suwayda between Bedouin and Druze groups, during which government troops were deployed to quell the fighting. The bloodshed worsened and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops, and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire there, four deaths were reported in the province over the weekend, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that three of the victims were government soldiers and one was a local fighter. Syria’s state media reported on deaths among security forces.

The Syrian government said in a statement that gangs in the area had “resorted to violating the ceasefire agreement by launching treacherous attacks against internal security forces on several fronts”.

State media says armed groups violated the truce agreed in the predominantly Druze region.

Druze armed groups have attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in the restive area of Suwayda, killing at least one government soldier and wounding others, as well as shelling several villages in the southern province, according to state-run Ekhbariya TV.

Ekhbariya’s report on Sunday quoted a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where sectarian bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.

In response to the renewed violence, the Syrian government said in a statement that “the media and sectarian mobilisation campaigns led by the rebel gangs in the city have not ceased over the past period”.

It added: “As these gangs failed to thwart the efforts of the Syrian state and its responsibilities towards our people in Suwayda, they resorted to violating the ceasefire agreement by launching treacherous attacks against internal security forces on several fronts and shelling some villages with rockets and mortar shells, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of a number of security personnel.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported four deaths in the latest violence in Suwayda, noting three were government soldiers and one was a local fighter.

Violence in Suwayda erupted on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions.

Government forces were sent in to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops, and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.

The Druze are a minority community in the region with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Suwayda province is predominantly Druze, but is also home to Bedouin tribes, and the communities have had longstanding tensions over land and other resources.

A United States-brokered truce between Israel and Syria was announced in tandem with Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa declaring a ceasefire in Suwayda after previous failed attempts. The fighting had raged in Suwayda city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to do so.

The Suwayda bloodshed was another blow to al-Sharaa’s fledgling government, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.

Hundreds of Bedouin families were displaced by the fighting in Suwayda and relocated to nearby Deraa.

Israel attacks Syria again

Separately, the Israeli military said on Sunday that it conducted a raid on targets in southern Syria on Saturday.

The army said it seized weapons and questioned several suspects it said were involved in weapons trafficking in the area.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by ISIL (ISIS) on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir Az Zor on July 31.

The SDF was the main force allied with the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated ISIL in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swaths of Syria and Iraq.

ISIL has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir Az Zor city was captured by ISIL in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

On Saturday, Syria’s Defence Ministry said an attack carried out by the SDF in the countryside of the northern city of Manbij injured four army personnel and three civilians.

The ministry described the attack as “irresponsible and for unknown reasons”, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Defence Ministry accuses Kurdish-led SDF of injuring four army personnel and three civilians in rocket attack near Manbij.

Syria’s Ministry of Defence has accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of carrying out a rocket attack on a military position in northern Syria, injuring four army personnel and three civilians.

In a statement carried by Syria’s official SANA news agency, the ministry said the military was able to repel the attack in the countryside of the city of Manbij.

“The army forces are working to deal with the sources of fire that targeted the civilian villages near the deployment lines,” the ministry said, adding in a later statement that the military was carrying out “precise strikes”.

But the United States-backed SDF said in a statement that it was responding to “an unprovoked artillery assault targeting civilian-populated areas with more than ten shells” from factions operating within Syrian government ranks.

The statement made no mention of casualties.

The incident comes after the SDF signed a deal in March with Syria’s new interim government to integrate into state institutions.

The SDF has controlled a semi-autonomous region in the northeastern part of the country since 2015, and the deal, if implemented, would bring that territory under the full control of Syria’s central government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa led the lightning rebel offensive that toppled longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December last year.

Discussions over the integration of the SDF into the Syrian state had been ongoing since the fall of al-Assad, but were hampered by divides fostered over years of civil war.

The deal reached in March did not specify how the SDF would be merged with the Syrian armed forces.

The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.

“While we reaffirm our commitment to respecting the current de-escalation arrangements, we call on the relevant authorities in the Syrian government to take responsibility and bring the undisciplined factions under their control,” the SDF said in its statement.

A humanitarian aid convoy has reached Syria’s Druze-majority Suwayda province as the United Nations warns that the humanitarian situation remains critical after last week’s deadly clashes displaced thousands and left essential services in ruins.

Clashes in Druze-majority Suwayda province, which began on July 13 and ended with a ceasefire a week later, initially involved Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, who have been fighting for decades. Later, government forces joined the fighting on the side of the Bedouin armed groups.

State television reported on Monday that a Syrian Red Crescent convoy had entered Suwayda, showing images of trucks crossing into the region.

State news agency SANA said the 27-truck convoy “contains 200 tonnes of flour, 2,000 shelter kits, 1,000 food baskets” as well as medical and other food supplies.

The effort was a cooperation between “international organisations, the Syrian government and the local community”.

UN warns of critical situation

Although the ceasefire has largely held, the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that the humanitarian situation in Suwayda province “remains critical amid ongoing instability and intermittent hostilities”.

“Humanitarian access, due to roadblocks, insecurity and other impediments … remains constrained, hampering the ability of humanitarians to assess need thoroughly and to provide critical life-saving assistance on a large scale,” OCHA said in a statement.

It stated that the violence resulted in power and water outages, as well as shortages of food, medicine, and fuel.

Local news outlet Suwayda24 reported that “the humanitarian needs in Suwayda are dire”, saying many more aid convoys were needed for the province.

It said demonstrations demanding more humanitarian aid were held in several locations on Monday.

On Sunday, Suwayda24 published a warning from local civil and humanitarian groups of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Suwayda, adding that the province “is under a suffocating, escalating siege imposed by the authorities” that has led to a severe lack of basic supplies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that government forces were deployed in parts of the province, but goods were unable to enter due to the ongoing closure of the Suwayda-Damascus highway, as government-affiliated armed groups were obstructing traffic.

SANA quoted Suwayda’s provincial Governor Mustafa al-Bakkur on Sunday as saying that aid convoys were entering Suwayda province normally and that “the roads are unobstructed for the entry of relief organisations to the province”.

Deadly clashes displaced thousands

The clashes killed more than 250 people and threatened to unravel Syria’s post-war transition.

The violence also displaced 128,571 people, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

During the clashes, government forces intervened on the side of the Bedouin, according to witnesses, experts and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Israel intervened and launched air attacks on Syria’s Ministry of Defence buildings in the heart of Damascus.

Israeli forces also hit Syrian government forces in Suwayda province, claiming it was protecting the Druze, whom it calls its “brothers”.

Russia, Turkiye call for respect of Syria’s territorial integrity

Following the Israeli attacks, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of Syria’s territorial integrity in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Putin, an ally of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, also said that political stability in the country must be achieved through respect for “all ethnic and religious groups’ interests”, a Kremlin statement said.

A senior Turkish official also called for sustained de-escalation and an end to Israeli military attacks in Syria, stressing the need to support Damascus’s efforts to stabilise the war-torn country.

“From now on, it is important to ensure continued de-escalation and Israeli non-aggression, support for the Syrian government’s efforts to restore calm in Suwayda and to prevent civilian casualties,” Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz told the UN Security Council during a meeting on Syria.

“Israel’s disregard for law, order, and state sovereignty reached new heights with its recent attacks on the presidential complex and the Defence Ministry,” Yilmaz said. “The situation has partially improved as a result of our collective efforts with the US and some other countries.”

Vote will take place September 15-20 in the first election since President al-Sharaa took power.

Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, said the head of a body tasked with organising the election process.

Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, told state news agency SANA on Sunday that elections will take place between September 15 and 20.

They will be the first to take place under the country’s new authorities after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December.

One-third of the 210 seats will be appointed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected.

In a recent interview with the Erem News site, another member of the elections committee, Hassan al-Daghim, said an electoral college will be set up in each of Syria’s provinces to vote for the elected seats.

Increasingly divided

A temporary constitution signed by al-Sharaa in March called for a People’s Committee to be set up to serve as an interim parliament until a permanent constitution is adopted and general elections held, a process that could take years.

The announcement of impending elections comes at a time when the country is increasingly divided in its views of the new authorities in Damascus after sectarian violence broke out in the southern province of Suwayda earlier this month.

The fighting killed hundreds of people and threatened to unravel Syria’s fragile postwar transition.

The violent clashes, which broke out two weeks ago, were sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans and fighters from the Druze religious minority.

Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans.

Some government troops reportedly executed Druze civilians and burned and looted houses.

Israel intervened, launching air strikes on government forces and on the Defence Ministry headquarters. Israel said it was acting to defend the Druze minority.

A Syrian official tells Al Jazeera Damascus emphasises the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable.

Syrian and Israeli officials have held talks in Paris mediated by the United States, according to a Syrian official, in the wake of an eruption of sectarian violence compounded by Israeli military intervention in southern Syria.

The meeting on Saturday was held to address recent security developments around the southern Druze-majority city of Suwayda, which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks between Bedouins and Druze fighters.

Israel intervened in the conflict, striking government buildings in Damascus and government soldiers in Suwayda province, saying it was doing so to protect the Druze.

The Syrian official told Al Jazeera Arabic that Damascus’s delegation at the Paris meeting emphasised that the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable and Suwayda and its people are an integral part of Syria. It also rejected any attempt to exploit segments of Syrian society for partition, the official said.

The source said the Syrian delegation held Israel responsible for the recent escalation and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the points they had recently advanced to during the unrest.

‘Honest and responsible’

Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV, quoting its own diplomatic source, reported that the meeting did not result in any final agreements but the parties had agreed to continue talks aimed at maintaining stability.

The TV source described the dialogue as “honest and responsible” in the first confirmation from the Syrian side that talks had taken place.

On Friday, US envoy Tom Barrack said officials from both countries spoke about de-escalating the situation in Syria during talks on Thursday.

Hundreds of people have been reported killed in the fighting in Suwayda, which also drew in government forces. Israel, which carried out air strikes, during this month’s violence, has regularly struck Syria and launched incursions into its territory since longtime former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December.

Last week’s fighting underlined the challenges interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces in stabilising Syria and maintaining centralised rule.

Syria’s government announced a week ago that Bedouin fighters had been cleared out of Suwayda and government forces were deployed to oversee their exit from the entire province.

The announcement came after al-Sharaa ordered a new ceasefire between Bedouin and Druze groups after a separate US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military attacks on Syria.

The diplomatic source, who spoke to Ekhbariya TV, said the meeting on Saturday involved initial consultations aimed at “reducing tensions and opening channels of communication amid an ongoing escalation since early December”.

Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani and two of his sons affiliated to the group were killed in a raid, the US military says

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces have killed a senior ISIL (ISIS) leader and his two sons affiliated to the group in Syria’s Aleppo region, the US military has said.

A post on X on Friday said, “Early this morning in al Bab, Aleppo Governate, Syria, CENTCOM Forces conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani.”

“These ISIS individuals posed a threat to US and Coalition Forces, as well as the new Syrian Government, ” it added.

“We will continue to relentlessly pursue ISIS terrorists wherever they are. ISIS terrorists are not safe where they sleep, where they operate, and where they hide. Alongside our partners and allies, U.S. Central Command is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS terrorists that threaten the region, our allies, and our homeland,” General Michael Erik Kurilla, US CENTCOM commander, said.

In late May, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed group’s first strike at government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to analysts.

In a statement regarding that attack, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a “vehicle of the apostate regime” in southern Syria.

ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus led by President Ahemd al-Sharaa as illegitimate, has so far concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north.

The fledgling Syrian government has had to contend with Israeli bombardment and incursions into its territory since al-Assad’s overthrow, as well as the eruption of sustained sectarian violence in the southern city of Suwayda in recent weeks.