Has the Damascus leadership begun reconciliation with Syria’s minority groups?

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The new leadership in Damascus is exerting efforts to mend fences with Syria’s Druze community, weeks after the latter’s spiritual leaders accused the new Syrian government of being “extremist in every sense of the word.”

The stated-run Syrian news agency (SANA) on Thursday reported that Damascus’s newly-appointed Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra on Sunday “received a delegation from the Rijal al-Karama (Men of Diginity) Movement, led by Sheikh Laith al-Bal’ous.”

The Rijal al-Karama (Men of Dignity) Movement was founded in 2013 by Laith al-Bal’ous’s father, Sheikh Abu Fahad Waheed al-Bal'ous, in Syria's southern Druze-majority province of Suwayda. The group opposed the compulsory military service imposed by the regime of toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad regime.

Following a swift offensive, a coalition of rebel groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa - on December 8 toppled the Assad regime. Sharaa was in late January appointed as Syria’s interim President, vowing to form an “inclusive transitional government that would reflect Syria's diversity,” hold "free and fair elections" and preserve Syria’s "civil peace" and territorial unity.

After the fall of Assad, the Rijal al-Karama Movement became one of the largest armed groups in Suwayda, playing a key role in protecting the local population in the Druze-majority province, ensuring security, and organizing local militias to safeguard the region from external threats and internal corruption.

On Sunday as well, SANA reported that Defense Minister Abu Qasra received “a group of officers from the Veterans' Association of Suwayda.”
Abu Qasra’s meetings with Druze community dignitaries notably coincided with similar meetings by Suwayda Governor, Mustafa al-Bakur.

SANA on Sunday reported that Bakur led an official delegation to visit the Syrian Druze communities top spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari at his Qanawat headquarters “to congratulate him on the Eid al-Fitr holiday,” the celebration of the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The state-run Syrian news agency quoted the Druze leader as stating, “We have confidence in governor Dr. Mustafa al-Bakur who is the link between us and the government in Damascus." SANA further cited Hajari as urging officials in Syrian state institutions to “address obstacles in a way that serves the public interest.” He also highlighted the importance of governmental and societal oversight “to build a strong and balanced nation.”

The Suwayda governor Bakur additionally met with other two spiritual leaders of Syria’s Druze community, Youssef Jarbou and Hammoud al-Hannawi at their headquarters as well.

The state-run news agency also reported that Bakur visited the Bostra, Horan, and Jabal al-Arab Orthodox Archdiocese and met with Metropolitan Archbishop Antonios Saad. “During the meeting, the importance of Syrian unity, equality in citizenship, and brotherhood among all components of society was emphasized,” SANA said.

Why this matters?

The Syrian Druze community’s top leader in mid-March Hajari slammed the current government in Damascus as "extremist in every sense of the word" and “wanted by international [courts of] justice."

He then denied reports that a deal had been struck between Syria’s Druze community and the Damascus leadership.

Dealing with the new Syrian leadership is something the Druze community cannot “approach with leniency,” stressing that “there is no entente or understanding with the current government in Damascus” and that “we are working for the interest of our sect, and every sect [in Syria] is strong in its men, cadres, and national ideology.”

Hajari’s mid-March remarks notably came hours after Syria’s interim President Sharaa approved a 53-article constitutional declaration that centers on Islamic jurisprudence, stipulates that the country’s president must be a Muslim, and sets a five-year transitional period of the country. It also maintains the name of the country as the Syrian “Arab” Republic.

The constitutional declaration additionally grants Sharaa exclusive executive power – effectively abolishing the post of prime minister - the authority to appoint one-third of the legislature, and the ability to appoint judges to the constitutional court, which is the body that can hold him accountable.

The interim constitution then sparked much criticism from Syria’s Kurds, Druze, Christians, as well as international rights groups who warned that it consolidates power in the hands of the president and risks entrenching “authoritarian control,” and censured the exclusion of Syria’s ethnic and religious components from the drafting process.

Amid tensions with the new leadership in Damascus, a delegation of Druze religious elders from Syria in mid-March crossed into Israel for the first religious pilgrimage in more than 50 years, since the creation of Israel in 1948. Around 100 Druze sheikhs from villages on the slope of Mount Hermon in Syria, overlooked by the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, visited shrines including sites.

The clerics crossed the armistice line between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights and headed to northern Israel on board three buses escorted by military vehicles. They then headed to the tomb of Nabi Shuayb near Tiberias in the Galilee - the most important religious site for the Druze.

The visit came weeks after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in early March underscored that “Israel has strong ties with the Druze,” and urged “the new rulers in Damascus” to “respect the rights of minorities, including the Druze.”

What's next?

The apparent rapprochement between the Damascus leadership and Syria’s Druze community comes only days after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Rojava and Damascus-affiliated forces on Thursday began the process of swapping nearly 250 prisoners.

The swap came after the SDF and Damascus struck a key deal on Tuesday to exchange all prisoners and keep the SDF-affiliated internal security forces (Asayish) in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood.

Prior to that in early March, SDF chief Mazloum Abdi and Syria’s interim President Sharaa signed a landmark agreement on Monday to “integrate all civil and military institutions in northeast Syria [Rojava] under the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the [Qamishli International] Airport, and oil and gas fields.”

The deal emphasized that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state, which ensures this community’s right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights.”

As the new Syrian leadership’s efforts to build bridges with the Kurds and now Druze community seem to be underway, similar initiatives may well be launched by Damascus to mend fences with other religious and ethnic components in Syria, namely the Christians and the Alawites.

This is especially possible in light of the international pressure on the Syrian government to uphold the rights of Syria’s minorities or face delays in the much-needed sanctions relief.

A European Union official in late February warned Damascus that eased EU sanctions would be reinstated if the situation in the country does not progress in the “right direction.”

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President, Kaja Kallas, then elaborated that “any [new] government formed [in Syria] must be inclusive, encompassing the [country’s] various [ethnic and religious] groups.” She warned that if things “do not head in the right direction, we are ready to reimpose the waived sanctions.”

The most delicate rapprochement for Damascus will probably be with Syria’s Alawite community. The Assad family, which ruled Syria from 1970 to 2024, notably descends from the Alawite religious sect. In early March, violence broke out in the Alawite-majority coastal areas of western Syria after loyalists of ousted Syrian dictator Assad launched attacks on security forces affiliated with the new Syrian leadership.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) then reported that around 1,500 people, mostly Alawite civilians, have been killed in the violence. The UK-based war monitor added that most casualties were caused by government or government-affiliated forces

Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Thursday censured the “mass killings” recorded in Syria’s Alawite-majority coastal areas in March, accusing Damascus of perpetrating a “war crime” against the minority group and warning of further “atrocities” if accountability is not enforced.

Amnesty stated that “the Syrian government must ensure that the perpetrators of a wave of mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas [west of Syria] are held accountable,” adding that its investigations concluded that 32 of the killings specifically “targeted at the Alawite minority sect and were unlawful.”

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