{"id":279730,"date":"2025-07-21T10:46:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279730\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T10:46:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:46:23","slug":"us-envoy-doubles-down-on-support-for-syrias-government-and-criticizes-israels-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/279730\/","title":{"rendered":"US envoy doubles down on support for Syria’s government and criticizes Israel’s intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 A U.S. envoy doubled down on Washington\u2019s support for the new government in Syria, saying Monday there is \u201cno Plan B\u201d to working with the current authorities to unite the country still reeling from a nearly 14-year civil war and now wracked by a new outbreak of sectarian violence.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tom Barrack took a critical tone toward Israel\u2019s recent intervention<\/a> in Syria, calling it poorly timed and saying that it complicated efforts to stabilize the region.<\/p>\n

Barrack,<\/a> who is ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and also has a short-term mandate in Lebanon, made the comments in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. He spoke following more than a week of clashes in the southern province of Sweida<\/a> between militias of the Druze religious minority<\/a> and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes.<\/p>\n

Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to restore order, but ended up siding with the Bedouins before withdrawing under a ceasefire agreement with Druze factions. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, and some government fighters allegedly shot dead Druze civilians and burned and looted their houses.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Israel intervened last week<\/a> on behalf of the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military. Israel launched dozens of strikes on convoys of government forces in Sweida and also struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Damascus.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Barrack announced a ceasefire<\/a> between Syria and Israel, without giving details. Syrian government forces have redeployed in Sweida to halt renewed clashes between the Druze and Bedouins, and civilians from both sides were set to be evacuated Monday.<\/p>\n

US envoy says Israeli intervention \u2018came at a very bad time\u2019<\/p>\n

Barrack told the AP that \u201cthe killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides\u201d are \u201cintolerable,\u201d but that \u201cthe current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.\u201d At a later press conference he said the Syrian authorities \u201cneed to be held accountable\u201d for violations.<\/p>\n

Regarding Israel\u2019s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: \u201cThe United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said that Israel\u2019s intervention \u201ccreates another very confusing chapter\u201d and \u201ccame at a very bad time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Prior to the conflict in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been engaging in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward a full normalization of diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n

When the latest fighting erupted, \u201cIsrael\u2019s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,\u201d Barrack said. \u201cThe new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address the broader issues between the two countries, including Israel\u2019s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.<\/p>\n

In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said \u201cboth sides did the best they can\u201d to came to an agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you accept that Israel can intervene in a sovereign state is a different question,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong nation states are a threat \u2014 especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel,\u201d he said. But in Syria, he said, \u201cI think all of the the minority communities are smart enough to say, we\u2019re better off together, centralized.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Damascus deal with Kurdish forces still in play<\/p>\n

The violence in Sweida has deepened the distrust of minority religious and ethnic groups in Syria toward the new government in Damascus, led by Sunni Muslim former insurgents who unseated Syria\u2019s longtime autocratic ruler, Bashar Assad,<\/a> in a lightning offensive in December.<\/p>\n

The attacks on Druze civilians followed the deaths of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite minority<\/a>, to which Assad belongs, earlier this year in sectarian revenge attacks on the Syrian coast. While interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has promised to protect minorities and punish those who target civilians, many feel his government has not done enough. <\/p>\n

At the same time, Damascus has been negotiating with the Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria to implement an agreement that would merge<\/a> the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the new national army.<\/p>\n

Barrack, who spoke to SDF leader Mazloum Abdi over the weekend, said he does not believe the violence in Sweida will derail those talks and that there could be a breakthrough \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighboring Turkey, which wants to curtail the influence of Kurdish groups along its border and has tense relations with Israel, has offered to provide defense assistance to Syria.<\/p>\n

Barrack said the U.S. has \u201cno position\u201d on the prospect of a defense pact between Syria and Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not in the U.S.\u2019s business or interest to tell any of the surrounding nations with each other what to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah disarmament remains a thorny issue<\/p>\n

Barrack\u2019s visit to Lebanon came amid ongoing domestic and international pressure for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference in Beirut Monday, Barrack said the ceasefire agreement \u201cdidn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in Lebanon that it says are aimed at stopping Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities. Hezbollah has said it will not discuss disarming until Israel stops its strikes and withdraws its forces from all of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

While the U.S. has been pushing for Hezbollah\u2019s disarmament, Barrack described the matter as \u201cinternal\u201d to Lebanon. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no consequence, there\u2019s no threat, there\u2019s no whip, we\u2019re here on a voluntary basis trying to usher in a solution,\u201d he said. He added that the U.S. \u201ccan\u2019t compel Israel to do anything\u201d when it comes to the ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 A U.S. envoy doubled down on Washington\u2019s support for the new government in Syria, saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[26935,105358,25646,32,4179,10680,5212,836,8614,41,837,58138,83634,8617,285,6500,105357,105356,49,978,659,7660,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-279730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-ahmad-al-sharaa","10":"tag-bashar-assad","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-government-and-politics","14":"tag-government-policy","15":"tag-hezbollah","16":"tag-international-agreements","17":"tag-islam","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-israel-government","20":"tag-mideast-wars","21":"tag-military-and-defense","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-syria","24":"tag-syria-government","25":"tag-tom-barrack","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-war-and-unrest","30":"tag-washington-news","31":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114890829144792297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}