A year of false starts, bloodshed, shifting balances of power and foreign intervention has produced a complicated landscape in Druze-majority Suwayda, one in which the voices calling for secession and self-rule are growing louder.
The Syrian army began to withdraw from Suwayda city on Wednesday night local time, following two days of clashes with local Druze forces that killed and injured hundreds and provided an opening for expanded Israeli intervention.
This week’s violence in Druze-majority Jaramana and Sahnaya reignited longstanding questions surrounding civil peace and the impact of sectarian violence on social cohesion in Syria.
It took years for Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri to move from outward support for the Assad regime to cautious criticism and finally open opposition. With the new authorities in Damascus, he is taking an adversarial stance from the start.
