Druze leader calls for continuation of Suweida protests in response to Syria regime crackdown

A prominent leader of southern Syria’s Druze community has called on protestors to continue demonstrating against the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, despite Syrian forces resuming their unusual tactic of firing on crowds yesterday.

After the Assad regime decided to lift fuel subsidies last month, protests erupted in the southern Syrian province of Suweida, in what surprised many as the latest mass dissent against the regime following its recapture of most of the country with Russian and Iranian assistance throughout the ongoing 12-year-long conflict.

Following weeks of the protests in Suweida, regime forces finally retaliated yesterday by shooting live bullets into the crowds and wounding three people.

According to The New Arab media outlet, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in southern Syria, responded to the crackdown yesterday by telling visitors at his residence in Qanawat – to the north-east of Suweida – that he was “not surprised by what happened”.

Expressing his opposition to the regime and its crackdown on dissent, he stated that “the squares are ours and we will remain in them peacefully for a day, two days, a month, two months, a year or two years, and we will not back down”.

Syrian Druze between revolution and Assad: MEMO in Conversation with Sarah Hunaidi

According to a statement by the Sheikh, which was read by one of his aides, “everyone who does not stand with his people, which is a sign of dignity, is a traitor to his homeland”. It added that “everyone who supports this defunct [Baath] party is … outside of the religious values and principles on which we were raised”.

Al-Hijri called on members of the local Suweida Provincial Council to either stay in their homes or stand with protesters, responding to the Council’s call for regime forces to protect “state institutions” the previous day. “You are elected and appointed by this defunct party, not by the people”, the Sheikh said of the Council. “Remain silent if you are unable to speak the truth.”

He urged the protestors to stick to peaceful demonstrations and to remain on the streets until their demands are met. “Spread awareness among [Suweida’s] people, regardless of their orientations and beware the strife that the regime and its aides seek.”