Syria misjudged Israeli response to deployment in Suwayda – Reuters
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Syria’s transitional government underestimated the scale of Israel’s response to its deployment of forces in Suwayda Governorate, southern Syria, last week, eight informed sources told Reuters on Saturday.
The sources noted that Damascus had been encouraged by U.S. signals suggesting that Syria should be governed as a centralized state.
According to the sources — including Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security insiders — Israeli airstrikes on Syrian forces and targets in Damascus last Wednesday marked a sharp escalation that “took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise.”
The sources said Syrian authorities believed they had received a “green light” from both the United States and Israel to deploy troops to the south, despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so. This perception, they explained, was shaped by public and private remarks from U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, along with preliminary security talks with Israeli counterparts.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but told Reuters that the United States supports the territorial unity of Syria. The spokesperson added, “”The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups,” the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.”
Meanwhile, a senior official from Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that U.S. statements influenced the decision to deploy troops. The decision was made on “purely national considerations” and with the aim of “stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict,” the official stated.
Last Monday, the Syrian Ministry of Defense sent military forces and tanks into Suwayda Governorate to halt clashes between Bedouin tribal militants and Druze armed groups.
Two sources — one of them a senior Gulf official — told Reuters that the violence attributed to Syrian government forces, including field executions and abuses against Druze civilians, provoked Israel’s retaliatory strikes. These strikes targeted Syrian security installations, the Ministry of Defense in Damascus, and areas near the Presidential Palace.
As of the time of reporting, clashes are still ongoing in the countryside of Suwayda and on the city’s outskirts, between Druze armed groups and Bedouin militants and other tribal militants.