Syria’s new transitional president, Ahmed al-Shara’a, has shown that he has excellent instincts for many policies that Syria desperately needs.
He was able to reach out to the West after the fall of the Assad regime. He was able to build a new government that included ministers from his own Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group as well as almost a dozen other ministers from independent backgrounds.
He has also navigated the region. He has travelled to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He has sought to balance ties with Qatar and the UAE.
He has also been in talks with Iraq and has journeyed to Egypt to build up ties with the Arab states. He has a keen sense of the role of Damascus in the region. He has wisely avoided conflict with Israel, even as Israel has been increasingly aggressive toward Damascus.
However, his largest challenge, and an area he does not understand well how to handle, is the sectarian tensions in Syria. In March, numerous Alawites were killed in Lattakia. Instead of pre-empting the attacks, Damascus let Ankara-backed extremists massacre people.
When tensions began at Homs University this week, around April 27 to April 28, rather than rushing to stop sectarian tensions, Damascus let them boil over again.
Shara’a is good at the big picture issues. He met with the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Abdi, in March and appears to be on the road to integrating eastern Syria into Damascus' control. The US looks to be leaving Syria.
Shara’a is also preventing ISIS threats from growing. He has also removed the powerful thuggish leader, Ahmed Awda, from running things in Dara’a governorate. Shara’a has checked many boxes. However, he doesn’t seem capable of predicting sectarian troubles.
Why can’t he rein in the extremists? He comes from the camp that produced many of the extremists in Syria. Therefore, he has the power to rein them in because he is trusted by them.
Rudaw correspondent Dilkhwaz Mohammed visited the Damascus neighborhood of Jaramana on Tuesday this week, the Kurdish media Rudaw said. An armed Druze local told him, “the security situation is currently, as you can see, under our control.”
The Druze man, citing a proverb, said, “strife is asleep, and whoever awakens it is damned. Those pushing for strife are acting against the whole of Syria.” The Druze don’t want conflict. However, they are wary and they want to keep their arms.
“Our religious clerics in Suwayda, Mount Hermon, and elsewhere are working to prevent strife….We are against strife, and the spill of the blood of any Syrian, regardless of their religion, is heartbreaking and not acceptable to us," the local told Rudaw.
Syria seems to still tolerate extremists doing its dirty work
However, the government of Syria seems to still tolerate extremists doing its dirty work. The report said that “earlier in the day, a senior Druze source in Jaramana told Mohammed that armed men launched a multipronged push to enter Jaramana from multiple directions.”
The Syrian government’s state media has sought to prevent strife as well and emphasized the importance of the Druze community.
Syrian state media SANA also noted that “the Grand Mufti of the Syrian Arab Republic, Sheikh Osama Al-Rifai, stressed that every Syrian blood is forbidden, and any drop of blood from any member of this country is precious and should not be neglected, calling on Syrians of all sects to unite and renounce sedition and stay away from calls for revenge.”
The Syrian Foreign Ministry "affirmed its unwavering commitment to protecting all components of the Syrian people without exception, including the honorable Druze community, which has always been and remains an integral part of the Syrian national fabric. The statement stated that the Syrian government expresses its deep appreciation for the wise and responsible role played by a number of Druze sheikhs and leaders in extinguishing the fire of strife and preserving civil peace,” SANA noted.
However, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle once these clashes happen and people are killed. Damascus waited 48 hours too long, just as it did in March with the massacre in Lattakia. Shara’a will need to change tactics if he wants his government to thrive.
