Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00For more on this story, we can bring in France 24's Wasim Nasser.
00:03Wasim, great to see you.
00:05Why are we seeing these sectarian clashes involving the Druze minority in Syria?
00:09Well, actually, almost a week ago, there was an audio, finally a fake audio attributed
00:15to a Druze sheikh insulting the Prophet, which ignited people to go into the street, manifestations,
00:21and on the other hand, Druze militants to attack checkpoints of the new Syrian authorities.
00:26As we speak, we have 47 Druze militants killed, 28 security members, 14 civilians, and 4 civilians
00:34due to drone strikes.
00:35Here's the map where the turmoil happened in the suburbs of Damascus, as you can see,
00:41and the yellow zone of Swaida.
00:44We have footage of troop transports going into Sahnaia, meaning when they pacified the area,
00:50security forces to stop the fighting, and here it is.
00:54And we also, we can see also the most important attacks happened in northern of Swaida, in
01:01the area called Asura al-Kubra.
01:04And we have pictures, actually, of a memorial of Issam Zahar al-Din, who was a former general
01:11of the Syrian army, loyal to Assad, who was burned by local militants, and even his house
01:17was burned.
01:18So it's a vengeance act.
01:21But what also happened is actually they went into a kind of a kind of mausoleum of Druze
01:29community.
01:30We have a video and which was burned, actually, by the locals.
01:33So it's a religious site for the Druze community who got burned.
01:37And here we see the upstick, you know, and like a sectarian turmoil that was like three
01:42days ago.
01:43So where are we now, almost a week after this violence around?
01:46Well, actually, we have two figures in the Druze community.
01:49We have Shaykh al-Hijri, we have his picture, maybe that we can see.
01:54He's against Shara, he's the man in the middle.
01:57And he is calling his man to resist to al-Shara as we speak.
02:01Another figure is al-Ba'lous, he's another Druze figure, actually, who's with Shara, helping
02:08Shara, and himself, his dad was killed by Assad, following a kind of fatwa by al-Hijri
02:13that we saw before.
02:15So inside the Druze community, there is turmoil regarding this issue.
02:19This picture is of him in 2022, so al-Ba'lous, fighting other Druze militant, which were
02:23at the time, who were at the time loyalist to Assad.
02:27And there is also a regional dimension, we're going to see the Druze Lebanese leader who went
02:31to Damascus on the 2nd of May, we have his picture to meet Shara, actually, and to support
02:38him, just to say that this turmoil isn't aimed only at Druze, that it's a problem that is
02:43not like a sectarian problem.
02:46They got an agreement with the help of Jumblat regarding the Sahnaia area that we saw before.
02:51It's the fourth agreement since the fall of Assad.
02:54We have pictures of Druze militants being liberated by the security forces.
02:58Here they are.
02:59So they are liberated and met by religious Druze figures.
03:03And we have also pictures of heavy armament that was handed to the new Syrian authorities.
03:08So we are talking about the heavy machine guns, Zou 23, that were handed.
03:12In this wider area, the agreement that was accomplished is that Druze militants would take back the
03:18area that we talked about.
03:20And we have a footage of this, the area of Surah Al-Qubra, where we saw the destroying
03:25of the Druze Muslim.
03:27And the fact is that Al-Hijri imposed on Shara that former Assad soldiers and militia and supporters
03:36integrate those forces.
03:38And his own forces, meaning actual security forces, left the area.
03:41So this is the state of the agreement as we speak now.
03:44But of course, among the supporters of Shara, people don't, some people don't actually like
03:49it.
03:50Because Sunni tribesmen in Swaida are fighting, are still fighting till yesterday, the Druze
03:56militiamen.
03:57And we have footage actually of a Sunni sheikh at the time when the Syrian government was declared.
04:02And here it is, he talked to Shara and he told him, like very vehemently, that Sunnis in
04:07Swaida are still marginalized.
04:09Meaning, under Assad they were marginalized and now they are marginalized.
04:12And actually it's his man today, or some of his men, that are fighting the Druze.
04:16Meaning the Sunnis in Swaida expect actually to take profit from the fall of Assad, which
04:21is not the case.
04:22And here when he talks to them, he tells them, you are not represented.
04:25And Shara tells him, you are represented with the minister.
04:27The minister of agriculture.
04:28But actually the minister of agriculture from Swaida is the Druze.
04:32So you see, the situation is complicated.
04:34The Sunnis there don't consider that they are represented by Druze.
04:37And Shara is trying actually to handle both sides.
04:41So given that Syrian authorities are trying to get a control of the situation by themselves,
04:47why is Israel getting involved?
04:48Well, actually Israel is in England, we have footage actually of the first drone strike.
04:53There was three strikes in the suburb of Damascus, helping Druze militants, as Israel says.
04:58They are actually answering the call of Druze in Israel, because Druze are really incorporated
05:04in the army in Israel and are very active in the Israeli society.
05:09And actually they asked the prime minister to act in Syria in support of Druze in Syria,
05:16actually.
05:17But on the other hand, we should know that more than 800 strikes, Israeli strikes happened
05:21in Syria since the fall of the regime, meaning artillery or by plane.
05:25And we have more than 200 incursions on Syrian soil.
05:29They enlarged the territory of activity of the Syrian, of the Israeli army since the fall
05:35of Assad.
05:36And up to now, Syria or the new government did not respond yet.
05:40There was two Jewish delegations, for example, coming from the States, Syrian Jewish delegations,
05:44who came into Syria after more than 50 years of being banned from going into Syria because
05:49the new government accepted it.
05:51The actual minister of foreign affairs, Syrian minister of foreign affairs, met Jewish representatives
05:57in New York.
05:58He even met the Rabbi Cooper and the Pastor Moore, who are coming to visit Syria soon.
06:03And here we see the Syrian president with the Azeri president, Aliyev, one of the most reliable
06:09allies of Israel in the region.
06:11And here we saw a delegation from Azerbaijan visiting the Syrian president in Damascus two days
06:16ago, meaning Syria is trying actually to find an agreement with Israel through Azerbaijan
06:22and through a pressure from American Jewish community, some of the American Jewish community,
06:27in order to calm things down and to stop the interventions of Israel in on Syrian soil.
06:32We'll see if that in fact does happen.
06:36Thank you very much for that.
06:37See you next time.
06:38See you next time.
06:39See you next time.
06:40See you next time.
06:41See you next time.
06:42See you next time.
06:43See you next time.
06:44See you next time.
06:45See you next time.
06:46See you next time.
06:47See you next time.
06:48See you next time.
06:49See you next time.
06:50See you next time.
06:51See you next time.
06:52See you next time.
06:53See you next time.
06:54See you next time.
06:55See you next time.
06:56See you next time.
06:57See you next time.
06:58See you next time.
06:59See you next time.
07:00See you next time.
07:01See you next time.
07:02See you next time.
07:03See you next time.
07:04See you next time.
07:05See you next time.