Damascus rejects Israeli politicisation of Syria’s Druze after Netanyahu’s brief call with al-Sharaa

Damascus has rejected attempts to draw the Druze community in Sweida into Israeli politics, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that he had held a sharp phone call with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, claiming that he had stopped the bloodshed in the area.

A Syrian government official said in a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency on Thursday that the Druze community in Sweida province has been and will remain an integral part of Syria’s national fabric and rejected any attempt to politicise it or involve it in Israeli propaganda and election campaigns.

The official said Israel had played a major planned role in undermining civil peace in Sweida in July last year by arming an outlawed militia to trigger widespread chaos and create a pretext for dragging the country into a wider war.

The official said these attempts had been thwarted and that Damascus was monitoring what it described as persistent Israeli efforts to destabilise the province.

The official added that US mediation had led to a halt to Israeli bombardment in July 2025, which had prevented the Syrian government from intervening to end the clashes between Druze and Bedouin communities.

Damascus would continue working steadily with its partners in the United States and Jordan to implement a three-way roadmap for reintegrating Sweida, in line with Syria’s national vision, while safeguarding residents’ rights, security and stability, the official said.