“Syria does not have a sectarian problem.” That’s the official position of Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, who made the declaration and emphasized the idea of Syrian unity and plurality on his visit to London.
That has been the ongoing position of the ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) party, despite 2025 seeing substantial violence against ethnic and religious minorities, including two high-profile massacres in which Syrian government forces participated.
The anti-Druze massacre was in July, and while it nominally ended with a ceasefire, tensions persisted and violence has erupted once again over the weekend, with fighting beginning Thursday evening between the Druze National Guard and the Syrian military, backed by heavy weaponry.
Official are blaming “outlaw groups” of Druze for the conflict, claiming they violated the ceasefire by attacking the Syrian troops positioned in the Suwayda Governorate, with fighting centered around the town of al-Majdal.
The Druze National Guard, on the other hand, claimed it was the military that started the fighting, saying they repelled the attack on al-Majdal and inflicted heavy casualties on the troops. There have as yet been no account of the deaths or wounded on either side.
Meanwhile, there are reports out of the commission appointed after the July massacres that an unspecified number of personnel from the defense and interior ministries have been arrested for involvement in the violence.
If true this could be substantial, as the committees appointed for the massacres into the Druze and the Alawites had previously been seen as accomplishing little, and holding almost nobody to account. It remains unclear how many people were arrested or what the charges against them will be, but it may be an important first step in tamping down sectarian violence.
