Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with leaders of the minority Druze community to integrate their home province of Suweyda into state institutions.
This development follows a similar accord Sharaa concluded with Syria’s Kurds on Monday and is seen as proof that he intends to honour his pledge to make Syria “inclusive” and respect all minorities.
Once the deal was concluded the Syrian flag was flown over provincial headquarters in Suweyda city.
Washington-based Al Monitor website reported that a meeting in Damascus between Sharaa, Suweyda governor Mustafa Al-Bakour and Druze activistsfocused on the importance of “justice, law and fair representation” for all Syrians and “plots being hatched against the unity of Syria, its land and people”.
The latter referred to Israel’s seizure of the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel after Sunni fundamentalists Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS), led by Sharaa (then known as Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani) ousted president Bashar al-Assad three months ago. Israel has also planted troops on Mount Hermon, the highest peak in the region. The Golan Heights is home to 24,000 Druze.
Under the deal with Sharaa, Druze armed groups will be placed under control of the interior ministry while the police force will be recruited locally. About 300 state security officers and 600 former Druze policemen will be deployed immediately. Among the factions to sign the agreement were the Men of Dignity, Al-Jabal Brigade and Free Jabal Al-Arab Gathering, according to Qatar’s Al-Araby television.
The half-million Syrian Druze community constitutes 87 per cent of the population in the southern Suweyda province which borders Jordan. Suweyda gives the Syrian Druze a territorial base – a similar situation to the Kurds who, before they reached their deal with Sharaa, ruled Syria’s northeast.
Unlike the Kurds who are an ethnic minority, the Druze, who make up three per cent of Syria’s population, are an Arab religious minority with about a million global adherents. They also live in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.
The esoteric Druze faith, which embraces reincarnation, emerged from the Ismaili branch of Shiism and has been heavily influenced by other Abrahamic religions. Druze clerics keep secret the tenets of the religion while the laity is enjoined to focus on mundane matters.
Sharaa still has to reassure Syria’s Alawite religious minority, to which the repressive Assads belong.
Alawites dominate northwestern Latakia and Tartus provinces where, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 1,225 civilians were killed in revenge attacks in last weekend’s sectarian massacres. Thousands have fled to northern Lebanon and are afraid to return home. Additional reporting: Reuters
