U.S. envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack (AA Photo)
U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack on Sept. 5 urged restraint in the south’s Druze-majority Sweida province after a prominent figure quit the region following tensions with supporters of a pro-Israeli Druze leader.
Sweida city and other parts of the province are under the control of local armed groups. They are the last major areas outside the power of Syria’s new authorities, who are seeking to extend their rule across the entire country.
Among those groups is the so-called National Guard, which is affiliated with Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri, a vocal critic of the new authorities who recently said his community was “an integral part of the state of Israel.”
Syrian state television said on Aug. 5 that “outlaw groups” in Sweida had forced prominent local figure Atef Hunaidi to leave “after he was kidnapped... from his home due to a statement he released condemning Hijri’s remarks.”
It said Hunaidi had later arrived in Damascus.
Barrack said that “where governance is absent, gangs fill the void, and today a very few with toxic motives are turning on their own.”
“Men such as Atef Hunaidi, arbitrarily detained and driven from his home,” Barrack said.
His said his team was in contact with Hunaidi “and with others caught in this campaign of intracommunal violence” and urged “restraint in action, and communication in earnest” in the statement, which did not name Hijri.
