Syria’s south goes through unusual chaos, takeover challenges
DARAA/SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Southern Syria is witnessing rapid developments and its fate will determine the future of modern Syria, observers say, because for 11 years of war we see that the south has still constituted a paradigm shift for the country.
Hafez Qarqout, a journalist from the city of Suwayda in northern Syria, said that what recently happened in the city was a “popular uprising that expressed the people conscientious for it got the balance back to the community as well as its ability to identify the future of the area away from the government-backed armed factions.”
On July 23, Suwayda witnessed popular movement and protests supported by local factions and Men of Dignity Movement to hunt down the government’s Military Intelligence led by Raji Falhout.
Raji Falhout is the leader of a militia which is backed and supported by the Military Intelligence Branch of the Syrian government forces.
The Men of Dignity is a self-defense militia established after the outbreak of the Syrian war to defend the Suwayda area. Described as a terror organization by Russia, it took an initial position against the Syrian government in the early days of the war but did not engage in any armed conflict with government forces.
The movement resulted in the fall of Falhout faction posts in the towns of Atil and Salim, north of Suwayda.
Years ago, Suwayda Governorate witnessed protests against the deteriorating economic situation which drove young men to emigrate.
The Syrian government depends on armed groups to put the governorate under control, the thing that caused a status of insecurity rampant.
“Suwayda, after this uprising, is never going to be like before, for it taught many militias a very hard lesson,” Qarqout told North Press.
He stressed that this popular uprising is considered a “community rebalance and restructure to affect the line of history that can build the future.”
He pointed out that the Syrian government, through its arms in the area, is trying to create insecurity, especially since Suwayda is on the side of the Syrian Desert that the government is using to smuggle drugs.”
He stressed that Suwayda will not be calm as long as there are government troops and affiliated armed militias on the ground.
Daraa’s share
The status of instability and insecurity did not only limit to Suwayda, but it rather extended to the neighbouring Daraa Governorate.
Despite the 2018 settlement, Daraa is still witnessing a state of insecurity and rampant chaos accompanied by kidnapping and assassinations carried out by several parties.
Since the government forces re-captured Daraa in 2018, the governorate has been living in a state of insecurity, with one or two daily assassinations targeting soldiers and officers of the government forces, not to mention the spread of thefts.
In 2021, Daraa Governorate went through an 80-day-seige. After that, a number of Daraa’s notables and government forces, with mediation of Russian officers, reached a ceasefire agreement on September 5, 2021, including handing over weapons and deploying governmental security posts in the towns of the governorate.
France-based researcher and journalist Hussam al-Barm said that what is happening in Suwayda is totally different from that of Daraa, especially in Tafas and Jassim in Daraa countryside because the “Syrian regime’s” calculations are not the same.
“The increased pressure made by the regime’s supporters has driven it, in one way or another, to start taking more serious actions in response to the assassinations that started to take more effective, organized, and systematic shape that could hit the regime,” he added.
Al-Barm pointed out that “there will be no real change, but the regime will be reset and repositioned in the area to achieve new moral and political gains.”
South messages
Under the state of insecurity and chaos, both Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah seem to attempt to interfere in the two Syrian southern governorates.
Qarqout, however, believes that what happened in Suwayda was a strong massage to Iran and Hezbollah that “they cannot breach the area.”
“Iran deals with the south like a chessboard, for it knows that the way of dealing with Suwayda differs from the one with Daraa,” he added.
He noted to the all level coordination between the two civil societies of Daraa and Suwayda through educated, elegant groups in case of any emergency happens in the south.
Suleiman al-Qarfan, a lawyer from Daraa, said that “the Syrian regime is working on implying the Iranian agenda represented by taking control over the south by escalating under flimsy pretenses.”
“The regime aims at deploying Iranian-backed military checkpoints in different villages in the south to split the relations between the villages and towns and thus take control over the area,” he said.
Al-Qarfan does not think that there are Russian-Iranian disagreements over the south, “on the contrary, there is a high-level harmony between the two states which is represented in leaving the Iranians to do whatever they like in the area.”