Syria accuses Israel of arming, funding militias in Suwayda to sow ‘chaos’

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Tuesday accused Israel of supporting armed militias operating outside state authority in the southern city of Suwayda, providing them with weapons and money to carry out an “agenda of chaos” in the region.

Al-Shaibani made the remarks at a joint news conference in Damascus with Sabrina Dallafior, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

He accused Israel of seeking to destabilize Syria since December 2024, when the Assad regime was toppled, through attacks on infrastructure and the occupation of additional Syrian territory.

The minister also accused Israeli forces of forcibly displacing Syrians and carrying out arbitrary arrests, saying the fate of dozens of Syrian detainees remains unknown.

Al-Shaibani called on the international community to halt Israeli actions threatening to plunge the region into chaos, and urged a return to the 1974 disengagement agreement, allowing UN forces to implement it.

READ: Israeli army enters Syria’s Quneitra countryside, blocks construction work

He urged Israel to engage seriously in US-sponsored negotiations that he said have been underway for a year and a half, stressing Damascus’ commitment to reaching an agreement that respects Syria’s security and sovereignty.

Israel has occupied most of Syria’s Golan Heights since 1967. Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Israeli forces seized the demilitarized buffer zone and expanded their presence in southern Syria.

The 1974 disengagement agreement established a UN-monitored buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces.

Syria and Israel have held several rounds of US-mediated talks aimed at reducing tensions, halting Israeli military operations and reaching a security agreement.

In August, Syrian and Israeli delegations met in Jordan under US mediation to discuss measures to halt Israeli attacks, arrests and military operations, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions held before December 2024.

READ: UN urges Israel to end harassment, intimidation, detention of civilians in Syria