Amid violence in Syria, pressure on interim government grows

Although the ceasefire in the southern Syrian province of Sweida is currently holding, the conflict between the groups involved is far from resolved. As a precaution, the Syrian government was sending Bedouin-Sunni families out of the area over the weekend, the country's state media outlet SANA reported. Altogether, around 1,500 people were transported out of the province by bus.

Violence escalated after conflict broke out between local Druze fighters and Bedouin communities in Sweida around 10 days ago. According to the Netherlands-based monitor, Syrian Network for Human Rights, around 600 people have been killed so far. Another organization in the UK, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, has suggested the death toll could be twice as high.


The deadly violence and large casualty count has put the country's new interim government, headed by former rebel militia leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, under even more pressure. It's most urgent task now is to end the violence in Sweida — permanently.

That necessitates reconciliation between different community groups in the country, groups that have been split for decades, with the previous authoritarian Assad regime using their differences to remain in power.

The violence in Sweida between Druze and Sunni-Bedouins is not the first of its kind since the Assad regime was ousted in December. In March, clashes between members of the Alawite minority and other Syrians saw around 1,500 people killed, including many civilians. It's possible that members of militias close to the Syrian government were responsible for some of the crimes committed in Alawite-majority areas.

The Assad family, which ruled Syria for over four decades, were also Alawites, and some Syrians mistakenly see the whole community as supporting the brutal dictatorship.

Government struggles to unify Syria

An investigation into the March events has just been handed to the interim government. The fact-finding committee concluded that more than 1,426 people were killed and that there was widespread criminal activity, including killing and looting, but that Syrian military commanders did not order any of these acts. The government will have to decide how to act on the report.

Al-Sharaa faces significant challenges, said Middle East expert Carsten Wieland, who has written several books about Syria. Recent events have undermined al-Sharaa's claim that he can be president for all Syrians, in a unified country.

"Many Syrians are growing skeptical of a state that apparently does not have its own security forces under control," Wieland told DW.

This makes the fact-finding report all the more important, he added. "It is of enormous importance that there are public explanations about who is responsible for what and that they are held accountable."

Syria still has a long way to go, confirmed Ronja Herrschner, a lecturer in political studies and researcher in Middle East studies at the University of Tübingen in southern Germany.

"Still, despite all his shortcomings, I've heard that al-Sharaa continues to enjoy a fairly good reputation, at least among Sunni Syrians," said Herrschner. "He's still seen as the man who liberated Syria from the Assad regime. That's why he continues to enjoy a certain degree of trust among Sunnis. But that's not necessarily true for members of [Syrian] minority groups."

According to an op-ed in the pan-Arabic media outlet, Asharq al-Awsat, al-Sharaa is facing serious pressure from both outside and inside his government.

External pressure comes from former supporters of the Assad regime, forces affiliated with Iran — Assad's former backer — and criminal groups involved with drug trafficking, with Assad funding his regime with money from manufacturing and selling the amphetamine Captagon.

Internal pressure is also coming from more hardcore elements among al-Sharaa's own supporters. These more extremist-Islamist forces are likely to clash with community groups who don't share their worldview. That, in turn, could draw in foreign actors and start a new civil war, the newspaper comments.

Communities seeking revenge

Al-Sharaa's support base is actually quite thin, Wieland argue, with many of the fighters who support him thinking along sectarian lines.

"This is the dangerous part of this younger generation," Wieland explained. "They constitute a political reality and the question is how al-Sharaa gets rid of these people without falling victim to them."

After the various intercommunal conflicts, there are increasingly large numbers of community groups that also want to take revenge on others. "Al-Sharaa needs to get them under control too," said Wieland.

Foreign allies are continuing to support al-Sharaa, said Herrschner. She explained that the US wants to withdraw from Syria altogether and can only do so if the country remains stable, a condition they hope al-Sharaa's interim government can achieve.

"The same applies to the Gulf states," Herrschner told DW. "They too are naturally interested in stability in Syria. And that's why they too are counting on al-Sharaa."

Wieland agreed, adding that Syrai's foreign allies don't want to see another proxy war starting there.

"Israel is clearly pursuing the opposite goal at the moment," he said. "Namely to divide the society there, in order to weaken the country. This should raise alarm bells in a region where state failure and civil wars are widespread phenomena."

This is precisely why the US recently opposed Israel's bombing of Syria, he added.

Over the past week and a half, Israel again bombed Syria — including central Damascus — and said it was doing so in order to "protect" the Druze in Sweida. However, Israel then agreed to a ceasefire with the Syrian government, apparently under pressure from the US.

An unstable and increasingly divided Syria is not in the interests of the US or the Europeans, said Wieland. "And at the moment, none of those countries sees an alternative to al-Sharaa."