Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed Thursday that those behind violence against the Druze minority would be held accountable after deadly clashes in their southern heartland, saying security responsibility would be returned to local authorities.
"We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state," Sharaa said in a televised address.
The Syrian government announced on Wednesday a new ceasefire in Sweida and a halt to military operations there after days of violence that killed more than 350 people, according to a war monitor.
It also said the army had begun withdrawing from the Druze-majority city.
Security forces had been deployed there a day earlier with the stated aim of overseeing a previous truce, following days of deadly clashes between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes.
France condemns reported atrocities against civilians in Syria’s Sweida
But witnesses said the government forces had joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians.
Sharaa said that "responsibility" for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions "based on the supreme national interest".
Before the government intervention, Druze areas were mainly controlled by fighters from the minority.
Addressing the Druze, Sharaa said the community was "a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation... protecting your rights and freedom is one of our priorities".
Syria's Islamist authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, have had strained relations with Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, and have been accused of not doing enough to protect them.
'Mediation'
March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their coastal heartland, with government affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings.
Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Sharaa said "outlaw groups", whose leaders "rejected dialogue for many months" had committed "crimes against civilians" in recent days.
He said the deployment of defence and interior ministry forces had "succeeded in returning stability" despite the intervention of Israel, which has bombed the country's south and the capital Damascus.
Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the Syrian minority, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible.
"The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities," that would have pushed "matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate", Sharaa said.
He did not specify which Arab countries had mediated.
Turkey is a key backer of Syria's new authorities, while Arab states including Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also shown key support for the new government.
(With newswires)
