As Western diplomats discover establishing ties with the rebels who’ve seized energy in Syria, a non secular minority is waging its personal diplomatic push to safe safety for its members because the nation rebuilds.
A consultant of the group, the Pals, just lately went to Washington to fulfill with lawmakers, members of the Biden and Trump administrations and diplomats to plead its case.
“We’re very frightened in regards to the future,” Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif mentioned in an interview in Washington, the place he urged US officers to prioritize the safety of Syria’s 1.2 million Druze as a part of their engagement with the nation’s new authorities.
In December, after a protracted civil warfare, a coalition of Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad and established an interim authorities. The rebellion ended a brutal regime, however for Western nations, an issue remained: The Islamist group main the rebellion as soon as had ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and in consequence was formally designated a terrorist group.
Insurgent leaders have renounced their outdated alliances and vowed to construct a Syria that’s tolerant of different faiths. And Western officers, longing for the rebuilding to start, have expressed their willingness to work with the Islamist group now in energy. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
However members of Syrian minority teams such because the Druze, who apply an offshoot of Shiite Islam and can be present in Lebanon, Israel and Jordan, stay skeptical. The religious chief of the Druze in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajjari, caution expressed in a current interview with a German broadcaster in regards to the guarantees of tolerance made by Syria’s de facto chief Ahmad al-Shara.
Sheikh Tarif, his counterpart in Israel, recommended that Mr al-Shara was not transferring quick sufficient.
“He speaks effectively,” Sheikh Tarif mentioned. “What I am listening to is that the West is happy and so they like what he is saying. However there’s plenty of worry amongst minorities. We would like statements to be backed up by motion.”
Mr. al-Shara has tried to distance himself from his group’s jihadist roots, promising to draft a brand new structure, expressing comparatively average political positions and attempting to appease Syria’s minorities. Within the southern a part of Sweida, for instance, there was a Druze lady recently appointed governor.
However some observers counsel that Mr al-Shara could solely be partaking in posturing to open the movement of international support. There are already some strikes that his new authorities has taken – like radical changes in textbooks — raised issues in Syria about his acknowledged dedication to spiritual range.
Sheikh Tarif mentioned that in his conferences with Western officers, he had pressed for much-needed financial support to Syria and for the lifting of sanctions imposed on the nation, however solely given that the brand new authorities may very well be proven to honor its commitments. He mentioned he has additionally sought to place the Druze neighborhood in Syria and throughout the Center East as key companions for Western nations looking for to affect outcomes within the nation and the area.
For hundreds of years, the Druze have survived within the Center East partially by political integration into the international locations they dwell in, whilst they hold their non secular practices distinct. In Syria they performed a major historic position, main a rebellion against French rule in 1925, which got here to be seen because the nation’s first nationalist rebellion.
“The Druze paid a excessive worth for Syria’s independence,” Sheikh Tarif mentioned.
When the rebellion towards the Assad regime started in 2011, some Druze joined insurgent teams, though neighborhood assist was combined, with issues that jihadist teams preventing the regime would show hostile to their beliefs. Druze fighters did participate within the insurgent offensive that toppled Mr al-Assad.
In Israel, the Druze neighborhood of about 150,000, led by Mr. Tarif, has protested lately towards the far-right authorities’s passage of a regulation that marginalizes minorities. “There’s loads to enhance,” he mentioned. However Mr Tarif dismissed criticism of current strikes by the Israeli navy to grab territory in Syria close to its border, saying Israel was performing to make sure its personal safety.
He famous that Druze commanders and troopers had misplaced their lives preventing as members of the Israeli military within the conflicts that started with the Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, and recalled the demise final summer season of 12 younger Druze within the Managed from Israel’s Golan Heights, who had been killed by a Hezbollah missile from Lebanon.
Given their presence in a number of nations, Sheikh Tarif mentioned, the Druze are seen as a possible bridge. “We will present the best way to dwell in peace,” he mentioned.
