Syria announces Sweida ceasefire as monitor says 940 killed in sectarian fighting • FRANCE 24

Syria announces Sweida ceasefire as monitor says 940 killed in sectarian fighting • FRANCE 24

For more on this, I’m joined now by Ketan Gorgesani, our international affairs uh editor. Ketaman, welcome back. Um, as we were just mentioning, there is this supposed ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria. What comes next? Well, uh, look, first of all, uh, what we have to look at is how this ceasefire, which was announced by the United States, is, uh, being presented or received by the two parties, Syria and Israel. Uh the interim president Ahmed al-Shara uh in a televised speech indirectly confirmed uh this ceasefire and the fact that his forces were uh in a way agreeing to that US backed ceasefire. He confirmed that he did also blame armed groups for reigniting the conflict in that area in Sueda. He also blamed directly Israel uh for pushing his country into a dangerous phase. He uh also as you said uh rem reiterated his pledge to protect all minorities uh in Syria and he made a specific ask of uh the Bedwin tribes who have been involved in the clashes in uh that province asking them to fully commit to uh that ceasefire adding that they would not be able to replace the role of the state in restoring security. He also thanked them for what they had done up until now but said look now the government forces need to take over and to restore security. Uh to that end there has been the start of the redeployment of government forces in uh the Sueda province. Uh, Israel, however, publicly, at least officially, has not acknowledged this idea of a ceasefire, even though there have been reports of uh, Israeli officials saying that Israel had in a way given its green light for a sort of 48 hour window for the Syrian government forces uh, to go back into Sueda to sort of bring back a little bit of uh, stability. Uh the only uh sort of public comment that we’ve seen uh in uh the past hours is from the foreign minister of Israel, Gideon Sar, who said that in Alshara, Syria, it is very dangerous to be a member of a minority. He also insisted that the international community had a duty to ensure the security and rights of the minorities in Syria. On the ground, there hasn’t been much movement. There’s still widespread reports since earlier today of uh clashes of gunfire. We don’t know exactly who that involves, but it’s definitely not a formal ceasefire with absolutely no fire uh on the ground. And as you said, uh the death toll over the past week uh rising to at least 940. That’s according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Now, u a lot obviously has happened this past week. Uh can you remind us how we got there and what are the different parties that are involved in all of this conflict? Yes, it’s it’s sort of a a mix and match of uh different official parties and less officials. So uh the players are basically the Syrian governmental forces that are led by the interim president Ahmed al-Shara. Then you have the Bedwins that I was talking about, the Bedwin tribes that are Sunni Muslim tribes. uh there’s the Jews minority and uh its military factions that de facto control in part that area around Sueda and there is of course Israel that got involved uh who has its own Drews community in uh Israel and in the Israeli controlled uh Golden Heights. So what happened was uh that uh back last Sunday there was a renition if you will of long-standing tensions between the Bedwin tribes uh and the Drews militias and the Syrian government forces intervened officially they said were coming back in to restore security, restore order, but then seemingly ended up trying to sort of wrestle more control of that area from uh the Drews militias. And at the same time, there have been widespread reports that some of these governmental forces were executing uh Drews civilians, looting Drews villages. And so Israel taking that said, “We’re coming in to protect the Drews minority because they are a very loyal minority in Israel and we’re defending basically their brothers uh in Syria.” They struck not only Syrian governmental forces in Sueda, they also struck the Syrian defense ministry headquarters in central Damascus. By Wednesday, there was the sort of truce between the Syrian government forces and the Drews militia. And then you saw uh the withdrawal of the Syrian governmental forces. Now there’s a truce between Israel and Syria. Syrian forces going back into Sueda and we’re basically back at square one with a very uh literal indication as to where this is going to go next. Thank you so much Kedavan for giving us your analysis. I’m sure you’ll be watching developments closely. That’s France 24’s Ketavan Gorgeous Stani from our international affairs desk. Moving on.

The Syrian presidency on Saturday announced an immediate ceasefire after days of sectarian violence in the predominantly Druze province of Sweida that left more than 900 people dead, according to a war monitor. The US envoy to Syria earlier said that Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire following Israel’s intervention this week in support of Druze armed groups that clashed with Bedouin clans and government forces. France24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani explains.
#Syria #Israel #ceasefire

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