Enab Baladi – Mowaffak al-Khouja
Amid the stalemate surrounding the file of Suwayda (southern Syria), academics and activists inside the city are trying to break months of deadlock and reach a solution that ends the crisis, closes the door on estrangement between the state and society, and sets foundations and ground rules for both sides of the conflict, through clauses they consider moderate and acceptable to both the city’s residents and the government.
Meanwhile, observers inside and outside Suwayda question whether the people behind these initiatives can produce real solutions, given the high ceiling of political rhetoric, deep distrust inside the governorate after the July events and the mutual violations that accompanied them, and the absence of a real guarantor on the ground. Instead, they say, what exists are recommendations, statements, and plans, without the ability to implement them in reality.
“The Third Current”
The latest of these initiatives, as of the time this report was written, is “The Third Current,” launched by academics and intellectuals from Suwayda who established what they called the “Civil Rescue Body in Suwayda,” a civilian entity that emerges from society and works for it, as they put it.
The 21 signatories issued a statement in early February, saying the “current” was imposed by the reality of deadlock in Suwayda, prompting them to raise their voices with “boldness and transparency,” out of what they described as their moral and historical responsibility to protect society and ensure its stability, dignity, and security.
What does the initiative aim to achieve?
“The Third Current” set out seven main objectives for the “Civil Rescue Body”:
Condemning massacres and demanding accountability and reparations. Holding the authorities responsible for the bloody July events. Affirming Suwayda as an integral part of a unified Syria and adopting consensual administrative decentralization. Ensuring residents return to their villages, releasing abductees, and compensating those affected. Protecting students and guaranteeing the right to education. Keeping Suwayda out of regional axes and ensuring a dignified living. Making dialogue and civic cooperation the foundation of community work.How was it received in Suwayda?
One of the founders of “The Third Current,” who lives in Suwayda, told Enab Baladi that there is a good level of satisfaction and support, because the proposal is seen as logical. He said the initiative offers a “middle ground” and avoids siding with one party against another.
At the same time, he stressed demands he described as legitimate, including government acknowledgment of massacres, reparations, the release of abductees, and attention to students’ futures, among others.
“Our initiative was put forward to pave the way for those who believe a solution can only come through negotiation and making some concessions, on the condition that there is no bargaining over the blood of the dead, the freedom of the abducted, compensation, and the return of the displaced. The authorities are required to open flexible channels and acknowledge the massacres.”
One of the founders of “The Third Current”
On the other hand, journalist and civil society activist Rawad Ballan believes these academics and activists do not represent the true elites of society at the Syrian level. Syrian society, in its various components, he said, is led by elites who hold power on the ground.
As a result, Suwayda is part of the broader system and decision-making there is not in their hands, especially given what he described as a “split between them and society.” He said they lack a base of support because they do not serve as a guarantor for what they propose, arguing that “there is no sincere partner in the authorities or their audience.”
Journalist and political analyst Darwish Khalifa said initiatives issued by community and political activists from Suwayda, inside and outside Syria, reflect an orientation toward rescuing the governorate from stagnation and moving it from an “operating room” to recovery, then gradually returning to normal life.
However, he added, Syria’s experience in recent years has shown that any major political or societal deadlock often requires an “external guarantor” to ensure the implementation of any agreement reached, or at least impose a minimum level of adherence to its terms.
Khalifa said the language of the initiative is closer to advocating administrative decentralization that would allow the governorate’s residents to manage local, service, and security affairs within the framework of the state. It could also open the door to a gradual settlement of the weapons file through integrating local factions or handing their weapons to the Syrian Ministry of Defense.
He noted, however, that the initiative in its latest form lacks essential elements that would allow it to become a practical track, foremost among them the absence of implementation mechanisms, the absence of a timeline, and the absence of a clear vision for dealing with Suwayda as a “political society,” not merely a “sectarian component.”
Khalifa considered this a fundamental gap, warning that reducing the governorate to an identity-based approach would reproduce the crisis rather than resolve it, keeping it hostage to mutual fear and security tutelage.
Attacks on the “current” and “Free Will”
The source from “The Third Current” in Suwayda, who asked that his name not be published for security reasons, said the “current” came under attack from what he called “separatist forces,” in addition to death threats and warnings against pursuing the initiative directly or indirectly, which forced some signatories to withdraw.
Members of the initiative also faced a fierce media campaign accusing them of treason and of being “agents of al-Jolani” (the Syrian president in the transitional phase, Ahmed al-Sharaa), which the source said amounts to a “death sentence.”
People behind similar initiatives have previously been targeted, as happened with the organizers of the “Free Will” conference in Suwayda, which brought together political activists and aimed, according to its preparatory committee, to form a political body to organize administrative and political life in the governorate.
The attack took place on 20 January and was attributed to “National Guard” forces affiliated with the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri. It sparked wide controversy amid conflicting accounts over the identity of the attackers and the nature of the violations accompanying the incident.
Two local sources in the city, one of whom attended the conference and the other familiar with the matter, told Enab Baladi at the time that the attack targeted the “Free Will” conference by unidentified armed individuals, some of whom were wearing “National Guard” uniforms.
According to the two sources, the attack resulted in property damage and the beating of some attendees, whose number was about 70. The sources denied that any arrests occurred as a result of the incident.
They also said the session had been discussing the city’s political and organizational reality and the possibility of opening negotiations with the Syrian government, which triggered chaos and anger among the attackers due to violations committed by Syrian government forces when they entered Suwayda in July 2025.
The attack prompted a statement from the governorate appointed by the Syrian government. In a statement, Governor Mustafa al-Bakour said what he called “outlaw gangs in Suwayda are working to obstruct every solution. They fear stability because it exposes their history of looting and profiteering at the nation’s expense.”
He said what happened at the conference was not an isolated incident but “a new episode in a series of repression and breaking the will of Suwayda’s free people,” as he put it.
Estrangement between the two sides
Suwayda is witnessing a state of estrangement between the parties that hold military and social influence in the city and the Syrian government.
Al-Hijri, who is seen as a reference for the military and administrative actors managing the area, has stressed in his speeches the idea of self-rule in the governorate without specifying its nature, while hinting at separation from the Syrian state.
Al-Hijri also endorsed the establishment of the “National Guard,” a military structure that includes more than 30 local factions, with a predominantly sectarian character, and which is responsible for the security file as well.
Administratively, al-Hijri formed the “Supreme Legal Committee” in Suwayda, tasked with managing civil affairs.
Trust in short supply
Journalist Ballan said the atmosphere in the city has almost completely lost trust, adding that the environment will not be able to listen to any initiative based on international guarantees except through specific tracks.
These tracks include equal citizenship, respect for diversity, participation in governance, and building an inclusive national military institution, along with a constitution that guarantees diversity and citizenship. They also include broad powers for local administration and safeguarding its security, guaranteeing freedoms, separating religion from the state, official recognition of the massacres and a national apology for them, accountability for perpetrators, the withdrawal of government forces from the western and northern countryside, the return of the displaced, the release of detainees and prisoners, uncovering the fate of the missing, reparations, and preserving memory.
Thirteen months after the regime’s fall, and amid abuses and violations linked to the current authorities’ one-sided dominance over the levers of power, it has become necessary to think in terms of broad-based political participation as an entry point to restoring some trust among Syria’s social components, consolidating stability, creating an environment attractive to investment, and getting the economy moving again.
Darwish Khalifa Journalist and political analyst
A compound crisis
Suwayda is living through a compound crisis whose features began to emerge in the early period after the regime’s fall, as the new administration tried to integrate factions into the state, but the process stalled due to a lack of consensus among the parties.
The crisis reached its peak in July 2025, when the Syrian army tried to enter the city, claiming it was seeking to break up clashes that erupted between the Druze component, which constitutes the majority of the governorate, and Bedouin residents.
The government intervention was accompanied by violations against city residents from the Druze community, which led to a broad outbreak of clashes and drew Israel into the scene. Israel has repeatedly raised the slogan of protecting Druze in Syria, citing family ties. Developments later escalated to Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, in addition to targeting army personnel who had entered the city center.
Israeli strikes led Syrian government forces to withdraw from Suwayda city and deploy in the western countryside, where they took control of more than 30 villages.
However, the withdrawal did not end the crisis, and it grew more complicated after local factions committed violations against Bedouin residents in acts of revenge. This prompted “tribal mobilizations” to support Suwayda’s Bedouin tribes, and clashes and violations continued on both sides.
Internationalization of the issue
The complexities of the scene in Suwayda led to the internationalization of the issue and the entry of international and regional parties. This resulted in a “roadmap to resolve the crisis in Suwayda governorate” through a Syrian-American-Jordanian trilateral statement on 16 September 2025.
The roadmap included several measures, including an independent international investigation committee, the deployment of qualified police forces along the Suwayda-Damascus road, plans to rebuild damaged villages and properties, strengthening a “national narrative” based on unity and equality, and criminalizing hate speech and sectarianism through new legislation, with legal support from Washington and Amman.
The source from “The Third Current” expressed support for the Damascus-Amman-Washington roadmap, hoping it would be activated to cut off the way for Israel so it would not continue implementing what he called its “dirty sedition.”
But Ballan believes the keys to any solution track are in the hands of al-Hijri first, after which it becomes possible to speak of the “National Guard,” civil society, and other supportive actors.
Khalifa argued that what the country needs today is not an exchange of accusations, but a comprehensive national project that reconnects what has been severed between the state and society and lays the foundation for a new social contract that goes beyond the binary of “security and sect,” toward a state of citizenship and rights.
In his view, this begins by calling for a comprehensive national conference that would lead either to broad consensus or to the election of a committee to draft a new constitution that reflects Syria’s diversity and establishes a balanced formula for local authorities in the governorates, in parallel with building a professional national army whose mission is to protect the country’s borders and safeguard Syria’s territorial unity, not to manage society or control it through force.
Can Civil Initiatives Help Resolve the Suwayda Stalemate? Enab Baladi.
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