SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Residents of the governorates of Suwayda and Daraa, in Syria’s south, say that the government security services affiliated with Iran benefit from sowing discord and chaos between the two neighboring governorates.
Since the eruption of the Syrian war, the two governorates have been witnessing mutual kidnappings which have increased in number during the past two years, leading to shooting incidents and casualties in some cases.
Armed gangs
“The Syrian government’s security services formed armed gangs in both Suwayda and Daraa in order to carry out mutual kidnappings and killings under the pretext of obtaining ransoms,” Hikmat Rawend (a pseudonym), a figure from Suwayda, told North Press.
“However, the main goal is to sow discord between the plain (Daraa) and the mountain (Suwayda),” Rawend added.
He believes that the practices of those gangs “curb the communication between the two governorates regarding any cooperation or coordination to organize the Syrian south.”
Suwayda resident Qasem al-Hinnawi agrees with Rawend when he says that there have been forces seeking to destroy relations between the two neighbors, but he did not specify the perpetrator, and just said they “will fail.”
He believed that the incidents that Suwayda and Daraa are witnessing are carried out by “guilty hands that sought to harm the residents of the south.”
“The friendly and brotherly relations between the two neighbors are still there despite the tensions they have recently witnessed, and that will not last for so long,” al-Hinnawi noted.
“Kidnapping incidents may be carried out with retaliatory motives and revenge for previous events between the residents of the two areas,” one of those entrusted with settlements and reconciliations between Daraa and Suwayda said in a previous statement to North Press.
Following the incident of the shooting a guard of a well in the town of al-Qrayya by shepherds from Busra al-Harir, north of Daraa, tension re-erupted between Suwayda and the eastern countryside of Daraa last week.
In 2020, tension between Suwayda and Daraa escalated when the Russian-backed Eighth Brigade headed by Ahmad al-Awda seized parts of al-Qrayya.
No more mutual trading
Al-Hinnawi recalled the before the Syrian war: “Guesthouses in Suwayda were open to visitors from the plain, as we have strong deep-rooted historical ties with the people of Daraa.”
The residents of the two governorates had social and economic relations that have been negatively affected by the increasing kidnappings and murders carried out by both parties.
The two governorates used to exchange goods and crops; however, trading between them stopped due to the tense security conditions following the kidnapping and murders that occurred on the routes connecting the two areas.
Commercial and economic ties between Daraa and Suwayda before 2013 were excellent, Mahmoud al-Do’bol (a pseudonym), a trader from Suwayda, said.
Traders from Suwayda used to head to Hal Market in the city of Daraa to buy vegetables and transfer them to Daraa, while Daraa traders used to head to Suwayda to buy different kinds of fruits which Suwayda was famous for.
Both Daraa and Suwayda traders used to visit a livestock market that was known as Soq al-Halal in Izra’, in the eastern countryside of Daraa.
Due to the increasing kidnappings and murders that many people witnessed at the hands of individuals from Suwayda and Daraa, “traders stopped economic works, and the markets were also closed between the two neighbors,” al-Do’bol added.
Mansour Muhammad, a trader from Daraa who has been living in Suwayda for six years, said, “During these six years, I noticed the Suwayda people’s great desire to restore the old natural ties between the two neighbors, including visits and sharing happiness and sorrows with each other.”
Muhammad stressed the necessity of having figures and the Sheikhs of Aql of Suwayda and Daraa together in a meeting to find appropriate solutions “in order to restore the ties as they were before, and to foil all the plots against the Syrian south, as we share the same fate.”
“Residents of the Syrian south should realize the major risk that threats the civil peace they live aiming to sow discord and separation between the people of the same area,” he added.