Fourteen members of the UN Security Council voted in favour of the US-drafted resolution. China abstained.
Published On 6 Nov 20256 Nov 2025
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The United Nations Security Council has voted to remove sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Interior Minister Anas Khattab following a resolution championed by the United States.
In a largely symbolic move, the UNSC delisted the Syrian government officials from the ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda sanctions list, in a resolution approved by 14 council members on Thursday. China abstained.
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The formal lifting of sanctions on al-Sharaa is largely symbolic, as they were waived every time he needed to travel outside of Syria in his role as the country’s leader. An assets freeze and arms embargo will also be lifted.
Al-Sharaa led opposition fighters who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December. His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began an offensive on November 27, 2024, reaching Damascus in only 12 days, resulting in the end of the al-Assad family’s 53-year reign.
The collapse of the al-Assad family’s rule has been described as a historic moment – nearly 14 years after Syrians rose in peaceful protests against a government that met them with violence that quickly spiralled into a bloody civil war.
HTS had been on the UNSC’s ISIL and al-Qaeda sanctions list since May 2014.
Since coming to power, al-Sharaa has called on the US to formally lift sanctions on his country, saying the sanctions imposed on the previous Syrian leadership were no longer justified.
US President Donald Trump met the Syrian president in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in May and ordered most sanctions lifted. However, the most stringent sanctions were imposed by Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in 2019 and will require a congressional vote to remove them permanently.
In a bipartisan statement, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee welcomed the UN action Thursday and said it was now Congress’s turn to act to “bring the Syrian economy into the 21st century”.
We “are actively working with the administration and our colleagues in Congress to repeal Caesar sanctions”, Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement ahead of the vote. “It’s time to prioritize reconstruction, stability, and a path forward rather than isolation that only deepens hardship for Syrians.”
Al-Sharaa plans to meet with Trump in Washington next week, the first visit by a Syrian president to Washington since the country gained independence in 1946.
While Israel and Syria remain formally in a state of war, with Israel still occupying Syria’s Golan Heights, Trump has expressed hope that the two countries can normalise relations.
Israel has conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad overthrow.
Published On 5 Nov 20255 Nov 2025
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Israel’s army has renewed its incursions into Syria, setting up a checkpoint in the southern province of Quneitra, according to local media, as it continues daily attacks, destabilises its neighbours and occupies and assaults Palestine.
State news agency SANA reported that two tanks and four military vehicles entered the town of Jabata al-Khashab in the Quneitra countryside on Wednesday, setting up the military post on the road leading to the village of Ain al-Bayda.
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Damascus did not immediately comment but has repeatedly condemned Israel’s repeated violations of its sovereignty, highlighting Israel’s failure to adhere to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that followed the 1973 war.
In that war, Syria was unable to retake the occupied Golan Heights. The 1974 agreement saw the establishment of a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone, which Israel has violated since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December
Israel has previously said the 1974 agreement is void since al-Assad fled, breaching Syrian sovereignty with air strikes, ground infiltration operations, reconnaissance overflights, the establishment of checkpoints and the arrests and disappearances of Syrians. Syria has not reciprocated attacks.
Back in September, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that Israel had conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad was overthrown, describing the actions as “very dangerous”.
Numerous villages in Quneitra, southern Syria, have experienced Israeli incursions, according to Syrian outlet Enab Baladi.
De-escalation discussions
Syria and Israel are currently in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israel’s air strikes on its territory and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
In the background, the United States has been pushing diplomatic efforts to restore the 1974 deal. On Saturday, Trump’s special envoy Tom Barrack said the two countries are expected to hold a fifth set of de-escalation discussions.
Amid Israel’s continued belligerence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of his vision for a “Greater Israel“, al-Sharaa has been forging closer ties with the US.
On Monday, he is heading to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump, marking the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House in more than 80 years.
Barrack said on Saturday that Syria is expected to join the US-led anti–ISIL (ISIS) coalition, describing it as “a big step” and “remarkable”.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said earlier this week that al-Sharaa was also expected to discuss Syria’s reconstruction with Trump.
Al-Sharaa’s trip, planned for November 10, will be first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the White House.
United States President Donald Trump will host Syria’s interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, for talks on November 10, according to Washington’s envoy to Damascus, in what would mark the first-ever visit by a Syrian president to the US capital.
Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, told the Axios newspaper on Saturday that al-Sharaa is expected to sign an agreement to join an international US-led alliance against the ISIL (ISIS) group during his visit.
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The Reuters news agency also cited a Syrian source familiar with the matter as saying that the trip was expected to take place within the next two weeks.
According to the US State Department’s historical list of foreign leader visits, no previous Syrian president has paid an official visit to Washington.
Al-Sharaa, who seized power from Bashar al-Assad last December, has been seeking to re-establish Syria’s ties with world powers that had shunned Damascus during al-Assad’s rule.
He met with Trump in Saudi Arabia in May, in what was the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years.
The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump’s get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, was seen as a major turn of events for a Syria that is still adjusting to life after the more than 50-year rule of the Assad family.
Al-Sharaa also addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that Washington was aiming to recruit Damascus to join the coalition the US has led since 2014 to fight against ISIL, the armed group that controlled about a third of Syria and Iraq at its peak, between 2014 and 2017.
“We are trying to get everybody to be a partner in this alliance, which is huge for them,” Barrack said.
Al-Sharaa once led Syria’s offshoot of al-Qaeda, but a decade ago, his anti-Assad rebel group broke away from the network founded by Osama bin Laden, and later clashed with ISIL.
Al-Sharaa once had a $10m US reward on his head.
Al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, had joined fighters battling US forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by US troops there for several years.
The US-led coalition and its local partners drove ISIL from its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.
Al-Sharaa’s planned visit to Washington comes as Trump is urging Middle East allies to seize the moment to build a durable peace in the volatile region after Israel and Hamas earlier this month began implementing a ceasefire and captives’ deal. That agreement aims to bring about a permanent end to Israel’s brutal two-year war in Gaza.
The fragile ceasefire and captive release deal continues to hold, but the situation remains precarious.
Israeli strikes in Gaza earlier this week killed 104 people, including dozens of women and children, the enclave’s health authorities said. The strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire began on October 10, marked the most serious challenge to the tenuous truce to date.
Meanwhile, Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli air strikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Barrack told the Manama Dialogue earlier that Syria and Israel continued to hold de-escalation talks, which the US has been mediating.
He told reporters that Syria and Israel were close to reaching an agreement, but declined to say when exactly a deal could be reached.
Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades.
Despite the overthrow of al-Assad last December, territorial disputes and deep-seated political mistrust between the two countries remain.
Wives and children of suspected Islamic State group fighters are detained in tented camps
In the complex mosaic of the new Syria, the old battle against the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) continues in the Kurdish-controlled north-east. It’s a conflict that has slipped from the headlines – with bigger wars elsewhere.
But Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC that IS cells in Syria are regrouping and increasing their attacks.
Walid Abdul-Basit Sheikh Mousa was obsessed with motorbikes and finally managed to buy one in January.
The 21-year-old only had a few weeks to enjoy it. He was killed in February fighting against IS in north-eastern Syria.
Walid was so keen to take on the extremists that he ran away from home, aged 15, to join the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They brought him back because he was a minor, but accepted him three years later.
Generations of his extended family gathered in the yard of their home in the city of Qamishli to tell us about his short life.
“I see him everywhere,” said his mother, Rojin Mohammed. “He left me with so many memories. He was very caring and affectionate.”
Walid was one of eight children, and the youngest of the boys. He could always get around his mum.
“When he wanted something, he would come and kiss me,” she recalls. “And say ‘can you give me money so I can buy cigarettes?'”
The young fighter was killed during days of battle near a strategic dam – his body found by his cousin who searched the front lines. Through tears, his mother calls for revenge against IS.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Walid was killed in February fighting against the Islamic State Group in north-eastern Syria
“They broke our hearts,” she says. “We buried so many of our young. May Daesh (IS) be wiped out completely,” she says. “I hope not one of them is left.”
Instead, the Islamic State Group is recruiting and reorganising – according to Kurdish officials, taking advantage of a security vacuum after the ousting of Syria’s long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad last December.
“There’s been a 10-fold increase in their attacks,” says Siyamend Ali, a spokesman for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – a Kurdish militia, which has been fighting IS for over a decade, and is the backbone of the SDF.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
“I see him everywhere,” says Walid’s mother, Rojin Mohammed
“They benefited from the chaos and got a lot of weapons from warehouses and depots (of the old regime).”
He says the militants have expanded their areas of operation and methods of attack. They have graduated from hit-and-run operations to attacking checkpoints and planting landmines.
His office walls are lined with photos of YPG members killed by IS.
For the US, the YPG militia is a valued ally in the fight against the extremists. For Turkey, it is a terrorist group.
In the past year, 30 YPG fighters have been killed in operations against IS, according to Mr Ali, and 95 IS militants have been captured.
Kurdish authorities have their hands – and jails – full with suspected IS fighters. Around 8,000 – from 48 countries including the UK, the US, Russia and Australia – have been held for years in a network of prisons in the north east.
Whatever their guilt – or innocence – they have not been tried or convicted.
The largest jail for IS suspects is al-Sina in the city of Al Hasakah – ringed by high walls, and watch towers.
Through a small hatch in a cell door, we get a glimpse of men who once brought terror to around a third of Syria and Iraq.
Detainees in brown uniforms – with shaven heads – sit silent and motionless on thin mattresses, on opposite sides of a cell. They appear thin, weak and vanquished, like the “caliphate” they proclaimed in 2014. Prison officials say these men were with IS until its last stand in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March 2019.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Al-Sina, located in the city of Hasaka, is the largest jail for IS suspects
Some detainees wear disposable masks to prevent the spread of infection. Tuberculosis is their companion in al-Sina, where they are being held indefinitely.
There’s no TV or radio, no internet or phone, and no knowledge that Assad was toppled by the former Islamist militant, Ahmed al-Sharaa. At least that’s what the prison authorities hope.
But IS is rebuilding itself behind bars, according to a prison commander who cannot be identified for security reasons. He says each wing of the prison has an emir, or leader, who issues fatwas – rulings on points of Islamic law.
“The leaders still have influence,” he said. “And give orders and Sharia lessons.”
One of the detainees, Hamza Parvez from London, agreed to speak to us with prison guards listening in.
The former trainee accountant admits becoming an IS fighter in early 2014 at the age of 21. It cost him his citizenship. When challenged about IS atrocities including beheadings, he says a lot of “unfortunate” things happened.
“A lot of stuff happened that I don’t agree with,” he said. “And there was some stuff that I did agree with. I wasn’t in charge. I was a normal soldier.”
He says his life is now at risk. “I’m on my deathbed… in a room full of tuberculosis,” he said. “At any moment I could die.”
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Hamza Parvez, from London, admits he became an IS fighter at 21
After years in jail, Parvez is pleading to be returned to the UK.
“Me and the rest of the British citizens who are here in the prison, we don’t wish any harm,” he said. “We did what we did, yes. We did come. We did join the Islamic State. It’s not something that we can hide.”
I ask how people can accept he is no longer a threat.
“They are going to have to take my word for it,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s something that I can’t convince people about. It’s a huge risk that they will have to take to bring us back. It’s true.”
Britain, like many countries, is in no hurry to do that.
So the Kurds are left holding the fighters and about 34,000 of their family members.
The wives and children are arbitrarily detained in sprawling desolate tented camps that amount to open-air prisons. Human rights groups say this is collective punishment – a war crime.
Roj camp sits on the edge of the Syrian desert – whipped by the wind, and scorched by the sun.
It’s a place Londoner Mehak Aslam is keen to escape. She comes to meet us in the manager’s office – a slight veiled figure, wearing a face mask and walking with a limp. She says she was beaten by Kurdish forces years ago and injured by a fragment of a bullet.
After agreeing to an interview, she speaks at length.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Kurdish troops patrol the area around the camps where IS detainees are held
Aslam says she came to Syria with her Bengali husband, Shahan Chaudhary, just “to bring aid”, and claims they made a living by “baking cakes”. He is now in al-Sina prison, and they have both been stripped of their citizenships.
The mother-of-four denies joining IS but admits bringing her children to its territory, where her eldest daughter was killed by an explosion.
“I lost her in Baghouz. It was an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or a small bomb. She broke her leg, and she was pierced with shrapnel from her back. She died in my arms,” she says, in a low voice.
She told me her children had developed health problems in the camp, including her youngest, who is eight. But she admits turning down an offer for them to be returned to the UK. She says they didn’t want to go without her.
“Unfortunately, my children have pretty much grown up just in the camp,” she said. “They don’t know a world outside. Two of my children were born in Syria, they have never seen Britain, and going to family who again they don’t know, it would be very difficult. No mother should have to make the choice of being separated from her children.”
But I put it to her that she had made other choices like coming to the caliphate where IS was killing civilians, raping and enslaving Yazidi women, and throwing people from buildings.
“I wasn’t aware of the Yazidi thing at the time,” she said, “or that people were being thrown from buildings. We did not witness any of that. We knew they were very extreme.”
She said she was at risk inside the camp because it is known that she would like to go back to Britain.
“I have already been targeted as an apostate, and that’s in my community. My kids have had rocks thrown at them at school.”
I asked if she would like to see a return of an IS caliphate.
“Sometimes things are distorted,” she said. “I don’t’ believe what we saw was a true representation, Islamically speaking.”
After an hour-long interview, she returned to her tent, with no indication that she would ever leave the camp.
The camp manager, Hekmiya Ibrahim, says there are nine British families in Roj – among them 12 children. And, she adds, 75% of those in the camp still cling to the ideology of IS.
There are worse places than Roj.
The atmosphere is far more tense in al-Hol – a more radicalised camp where about 6,000 foreigners are being held.
We were given an armed escort to enter their section of the camp.
As we walked in – carefully – the sound of banging echoed through the area. Guards said it was a signal that outsiders had arrived and warned us we might be attacked.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
About 6,000 foreigners are being held in al-Hol camp
Veiled women – clad head to toe in black – soon gathered. One responded to my questions by running a finger across her neck – as if slitting a throat.
Several small children raised an index finger – a gesture traditionally associated with Muslim prayer but hijacked by IS. We kept our visit short.
The SDF patrol outside the camp and in the surrounding areas.
We joined them – bumping along desert tracks.
“Sleeper cells are everywhere,” said one of the commanders.
In recent months, they have been focused on trying to break boys out of the camp, “trying to free the cubs of the caliphate”, he added. Most attempts are prevented, but not all.
A new generation is being raised – inside the razor wire – inheriting the brutal legacy of the IS.
“We are worried about the children,” said Hekmiya Ibrahim back in Roj camp.
“We feel bad when we see them growing up in this swamp and embracing this ideology.”
Due to their early indoctrination, she believes they will be even more hardline than their fathers.
“They are the seeds for a new version of IS,” she said. “Even more powerful than the previous one.”
Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Goktay Koraltan and Fahad Fattah
Election marks landmark moment in country’s post-war transition, but vote is postponed in Druze and Kurdish areas.
Syria has published the results of its first parliamentary election since the government of former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled, revealing that most new members of the revamped People’s Assembly are Sunni Muslim and male.
Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told a press conference on Monday that only four percent of the 119 members selected in the indirect vote were women and only two Christians were among the winners, sparking concerns about inclusivity and fairness.
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The election represents a landmark moment in the country’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of war, but critics say it favours well-connected figures and is likely to keep power concentrated in the hands of Syria’s new rulers, rather than paving the way for genuine democratic change.
News agency AFP cited Najmeh as saying that the number of women in the parliament was “not proportionate to the status of women in Syrian society and their role in political, economic and social life”.
He called the representation of Christians “weak, considering the proportion of Christians in Syria”.
The authorities resorted to an indirect voting system rather than universal suffrage, alluding to a lack of reliable population data following the war, which killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions.
Sunni Muslims make up an estimated 75 percent of Syrians. The former al-Assad regime, which was overthrown in December after a nearly 14-year civil war, was largely headed by Syrians from the Alawite minority.
Sunday’s vote saw around 6,000 members of regional electoral colleges choose candidates from preapproved lists, part of a process to produce nearly two-thirds of the new 210-seat body. President Ahmed al-Sharaa will later select the remaining third.
Citing security and political reasons, authorities postponed the vote in areas outside government control, including Kurdish-held parts of Syria’s north and northeast, as well as the province of Suwayda, held by the Druze minority. Those suspensions left 21 seats empty.
Najmeh was cited by news agency AFP as saying the state was “serious” about having “supplementary ballots” to fill the assembly’s seats.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid said: “If you ask the Druze in the south or the Kurds in the north, they say [the elections] were not representative.
“If you ask people in major cities, like Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, and other parts of the country, they’re hopeful that this is the first taste of a real election.”
On March 10, Syria’s Kurds and Damascus agreed to integrate Kurdish-administered civil and military institutions in the country’s northeast into the state by the year’s end, but negotiations on implementing the deal have stalled.
Delays in implementing the March 10 agreement meant there were no timetables as yet for ballots in Raqqa and Hasakeh, according to Najmeh.
Najmeh said that the president’s choice would perhaps “compensate” for some underrepresented components of Syrian society, but he rejected the idea of a quota-based system.
Political and rights activist Nour al-Jandali, who was selected for a seat in central Syria’s city of Homs, was quoted by AFP as saying the new lawmakers “have a great responsibility”.
She noted challenges the new legislature faces, including “how we re-establish a state built on freedom, citizenship and justice”, adding that “women must have a real and active role” in drafting public policy.
Syria’s al-Sharaa voices hope for deal, warns of regional risks due to Israeli attempts to fragment country.
Published On 24 Sep 202524 Sep 2025
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Israel is close to striking a “de-escalation” agreement with Syria, after the latter’s President signalled that his country was “scared” of the former’s relentless attacks since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s rule last year.
United States Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the agreement would see Israel stopping its attacks on its neighbour, while Syria will agree to not move any machinery or heavy equipment near the Israeli border.
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Barrack said that both sides were negotiating “in good faith” on the agreement, which had been slated for completion this week, but had been slowed down by the Rosh Hashana holiday – the Jewish New Year – this week. The agreement would serve as first step towards an eventual security deal, he said.
Speaking shortly before Barrack, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled longtime autocrat ruler al-Assad back in December, voiced hope for a security deal, pointing out that his country had not created problems with Israel.
“We are scared of Israel, not the other way around,” he told an event of the Middle East Institute in New York.
“There are multiple risks with Israel stalling on the negotiations and insisting on violating our airspace and incursions into our territory,” he said.
“Jordan is under pressure, and any talk of partitioning Syria will hurt Iraq, will hurt Turkiye. That will take us all back to square one,” he added.
Al-Sharaa will be the first Syria leader to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday in six decades.
Risks of fragmentation
Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades, the enmity between the pair heightening during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has hobbled Syria’s attempts to get back on a stable footing, trashing a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two states, striking Syrian military assets and sending troops to within 20 km (12 miles) of Damascus.
Al-Sharaa said last week that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions.
Israel has alternately claimed that its strikes on Syria are aimed at preventing terrorism or protecting the country’s Druze minority, notably in the southern area of Suwayda where sectarian violence erupted in June. But Israel has brazenly bombed central Damascus as well.
Critics charge that Israel is seeking to fragment the country in a bid to keep it weak and exert its own dominance over the region.
Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, al-Sharaa renewed his call to the US to formally lift sanctions imposed on his country to enable it to rebuild and held talks this week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Israel has been lobbying US lawmakers and policymakers at the State Department for months to keep sanctions in place.
In a historical twist of fate for the ages, al-Sharaa sat down for interview this week, whilst in New York for the UNGA, with former US General David Petraeus, who once arrested the then rebel righter and led American forces during the invasion of Iraq, later becoming the director of the CIA.
A third of the People’s Assembly of Syria seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Published On 21 Sep 202521 Sep 2025
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Syria will elect a new People’s Assembly on October 5, the first parliament to be chosen since the fall of Bashar al-Assad late last year.
The vote for members of the parliament will take place “across all electoral districts”, the state-run SANA news agency reported on Sunday.
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The announcement comes as the new government seeks to rebuild state institutions and gain legitimacy amid regional and international efforts to stabilise the war-battered country.
A third of the assembly’s 210 seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The rest will be chosen by local committees supervised by the electoral commission. The chamber will be tasked with approving legislation aimed at overhauling decades of state-controlled economic policies and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria’s foreign policy.
The new parliament is also expected to “lay the groundwork for a broader democratic process” following al-Assad’s removal in December after nearly 14 years of civil war, SANA said. Critics, however, warn that the current system does not adequately represent Syria’s marginalised communities.
Authorities had initially said the vote would take place in September. The electoral commission previously indicated that polling in the provinces of Suwayda, Hasakah and Raqqa would be delayed because of security concerns.
Suwayda witnessed clashes in July between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, while Hasakah and Raqqa remain partly under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
In March, al-Sharaa’s administration issued a constitutional declaration to guide the interim period until the election.
The document preserves a central role for Islamic law as well as guarantees women’s rights and freedom of expression. Opponents have expressed concern that the framework consolidates too much power in the hands of Syria’s leadership.
Al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group played a key role in al-Assad’s fall, has also turned to regional diplomacy to bolster his government and Syria’s security.
He told local media that security talks with Israel are a “necessity”, stressing that any agreement must respect Syria’s territorial integrity and end Israeli violations of its airspace.
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has said that security talks with Israel are a “necessity”, and could lead to results in the “coming days”.
Al-Sharaa, who led the force that overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad in December ending the country’s 13-year war, made the comments to reporters on Wednesday.
Israel responded to al-Assad’s overthrow by declaring that a 1974 security agreement with Syria had collapsed, and increased the amount of Syrian territory Israel controlled, as well as ramping up air attacks in Syria, killing several Syrian soldiers over the past few months.
The United States, which has backed Syria’s new authorities, has attempted to broker a deal between Syria and Israel.
However, al-Sharaa said that the US had not pressued Syria to make a deal with Israel.
The Syrian president added that the potential agreement between Israel and Syria would need to respect Syria’s airspace, which Israel has repeatedly violated for years, as well as Syria’s territorial integrity. He added that the United Nations would need to monitor any agreement.
A security agreement could lead to other agreements being reached, al-Sharaa said, but a normalisation agreement between the two countries was not currently on the table.
Israel has repeatedly entered Syria since the fall of al-Assad and has carried out air raids across the country.
Published On 14 Sep 202514 Sep 2025
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Israeli troops have carried out a ground operation in Syria’s southeastern Deraa province, Syria’s state news agency reported, the latest incursion in the neighbouring country as it also continues air raids against Damascus in various locations.
Soldiers also carried out searches in the Saysoun and Jamlah towns on Sunday, which are adjacent to the 1974 ceasefire line that was meant to separate Israeli and Syrian troops.
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On Saturday, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s interim president, said talks with Israel have begun to re-establish a 1974 agreement which was concluded after the 1973 war between the countries.
Israel and Syria have held direct talks in recent months, and al-Sharaa has ruled out normalisation. The talks are aimed at halting Israel’s aggressive actions towards Syria and reaching some kind of security deal.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on 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 the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.
On Tuesday, Syria “strongly condemned” Israeli attacks on several sites in and around Homs city in the west of the country and around the coastal city of Latakia.
The Israeli air attacks represent “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic”, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
While Israel had for years waged a secretive campaign of aerial bombardment against Syria’s military infrastructure, its attacks on its neighbour have ramped up since the war on Gaza and the fall of al-Assad.
In late August, six Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli drone attack on Damascus, which came a day after a ground incursion into Syrian territory by Israeli troops.
The attacks on Syria come amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of a vision for a “Greater Israel“, a concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis that lays claim to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.
After violence in southern Syria’s Suwayda 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 bombed the heart of the capital, Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.
A French court issues the warrants in connection with the bombing of a press centre in Homs in 2012 that killed two journalists.
Published On 2 Sep 20252 Sep 2025
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.
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.
Under al-Assad, Syrian state officials used several techniques to punish real and perceived opponents, including whipping, sleep deprivation and electrocution.
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.
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”.
A Syrian man chants slogans as people gather to protest the humanitarian situation in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda on July 28, 2025 [Shadi al-dabaisi/AFP]
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.”
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.
Health Ministry says four killed, 116 others wounded after explosion in Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.
At least four people have been killed and more than 100 others were wounded in an explosion in Idlib province, northwestern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.
In a statement on Thursday, carried by SANA, Syria’s Ministry of Health said that the explosion occurred in the town of Maarat Misrin in the northern Idlib countryside.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
The ministry said that “four people were killed and 116 others were wounded,” according to a preliminary death toll.
The Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said at least six people were killed in the blast.
“This is the death toll only of those recovered by Syria Civil Defence teams, who continue to search for those trapped under the rubble,” the White Helmets said in a statement.
Raed Al-Saleh, Syria’s minister of emergency and disaster management, said in a post on X that the country’s Civil Defence teams rushed to the scene of the blast and were working in dangerous and complex conditions.
He said the teams were carrying out evacuation and rescue operations amid ongoing secondary blasts.
Saleh urged residents to avoid the site for their own safety.
The blast was the third in the region this month. Earlier in July, two explosions rocked the Kafriya and al-Fu’ah regions.
Syria’s armed Bedouin clans have announced their withdrawal from the Druze-majority city of Suwayda after weeklong clashes and a United States-brokered ceasefire.
Fighting between Druze fighters and Sunni Muslim clans killed more than 250 people and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile post-war transition.
Israel also launched dozens of air strikes in the southern province of Suwayda, targeting government forces, who had in effect sided with the Bedouins.
The fighting also led to a series of sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has been perceived as more sympathetic to the Bedouins, tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of its fighters. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying they “cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country’s affairs and restoring security”.
Dozens of armed Bedouins alongside other clans from around the country who came to support them remained on the outskirts of Suwayda as government security forces and military police were deployed on Sunday to oversee their exit from the entire province. The Bedouin fighters blamed the clashes on Druze factions loyal to spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and accused them of harming Bedouin families.
The Syrian government on Monday began evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside Suwayda.
Syrian state media said on Sunday that the government had coordinated with some officials in Suwayda to bring in coaches to evacuate about 1,500 Bedouins from the city. Interior Minister Ahmad al-Dalati told the SANA news agency that the initiative would also allow displaced civilians from Suwayda to return because the fighting has largely stopped and efforts for a complete ceasefire are ongoing.
Syrian authorities did not give further details about the evacuation or how it ties into the broader agreement after failed talks for a captive exchange deal.
A fragile ceasefire in Syria’s mainly Druze city of Suwayda appears to be holding after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a new truce on Saturday following a week of fighting. Gov’t forces deployed to clear Bedouin fighters out of the governorate.
