Syrian presidency says ceasefire in place, urges all sides to respect it

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM - Syria’s Islamist-led government said its internal security forces began deploying in the predominantly Druze southern city of Sweida on July 19, and urged all parties to respect a ceasefire after days of factional bloodshed that had left hundreds dead.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that “Arab and American” mediation had helped bring calm, and criticised Israel for air strikes against Syrian government forces in the south and Damascus during the week.

Mr Sharaa called for calm and said Syria would not be a “testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement”.

“The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,” he said in a televised speech.

Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US envoy to Turkey said on July 18, after

days of bloodshed

in the predominantly Druze area that have killed more than 300 people.

On July 16, Israel launched air strikes in Damascus and hit government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect

Syrian Druze

– part of a small but influential minority that also has members in Lebanon and Israel.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, said in a post on social media platform X.

Syria’s Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence, triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions.

Earlier on July 18, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.

Damascus earlier this week dispatched government troops to quell the fighting, but they were accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze and were hit by Israeli strikes before withdrawing under a truce agreed on July 16.

Israel had repeatedly said it would not allow Syrian troops to deploy to the country’s south, but on July 18 it said it would grant them a brief window to end renewed clashes there.

“In light of the ongoing instability in south-west Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours,” the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.

Describing

Syria’s new rulers

as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority.

It carried out more strikes on Sweida in the early hours of July 18.

The US intervened to help secure the earlier truce between government forces and Druze fighters, and the White House said on July 17 that it appeared to be holding.

Syrian leader Mr Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.

Reuters reporters saw a convoy of units from Syria’s Interior Ministry stopped on a road in Daraa province, which lies directly east of Sweida.

A security source told Reuters that forces were awaiting a final green light to enter Sweida.

But thousands of Bedouin fighters were still streaming into Sweida on July 18, the Reuters reporters said, prompting fears among residents that violence would continue unabated.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 321 deaths in fighting since July 13, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides.

Syria’s minister for emergencies said more than 500 wounded had been treated and hundreds of families had been evacuated out of the city.

‘Nothing at all’

Clashes continued in the north and west of Sweida province, according to residents and Mr Ryan Marouf, the head of local news outlet Sweida24.

Residents said they had little food and water, and that electricity had been cut to the city for several days.

“For four days, there has been no electricity, no fuel, no food, no drink, nothing at all,” said Mr Mudar, a 28-year-old resident of Sweida who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of reprisals.

“The clashes haven’t stopped,” he said, adding: “We can’t get news easily because there’s barely internet or phone coverage.”

The head of the UN human rights office (OHCHR) urged Syria’s interim authorities to ensure accountability for what it said are credible reports of widespread rights violations during the fighting, including summary executions and kidnappings, the office said in a statement.

At least 13 people were unlawfully killed in one recorded incident on July 15, when affiliates of the interim authorities opened fire at a family gathering, the OHCHR said.

Six men were summarily executed near their homes the same day.

The UN refugee agency on July 18 urged all sides to allow humanitarian access, which it said had been curtailed by the outbreak of violence. Israel’s deep distrust of Syria’s new Islamist-led leadership appears to be at odds with the US, which said it did not support the recent Israeli strikes on Syria. REUTERS