CAIRO, July20. /TASS/. The parties to the armed conflict in Syria’s Sweida governorate have ceased hostilities and are preparing to exchange detainees and hostages, US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said.
"As of 17:00 Damascus time (2:00 p.m. GMT - TASS), all parties have navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities. The next foundation stone on a path to inclusion, and lasting de-escalation, is a complete exchange of hostages and detainees, the logistics of which are in process." He wrote on his X page.
According to Barrack, "escalating hostilities can only be contained with an agreement to pause violence, protect the innocent, allow humanitarian access, and step back from danger."
Earlier in the day, the Sweida Druze community leaders said they were ready to begin the swap with Arab tribes.
Syrian interior ministry spokesman Nour Eddin Al-Baba said in the early hours on Sunday that armed clashes in the city of Sweida had ceased completely. On Saturday, Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced an immediate ceasefire in the Sweida province to end clashes between militias and Druze self-defense forces. The ceasefire was announced in accordance with the reconciliation plan, drafted with the help of international mediators.
The situation in Syria aggravated on July 13 when clashes between Arab tribal militias and Druze self-defense groups broke out in the heavily Druze-populated Sweida governorate. On July 15, the Syrian army entered the governorate’s administrative center, the city of Sweida, and launched a mop-up operation to restore order. Shortly after, Israel began delivering airstrikes on Syrian army convoys, claiming that the operation was geared to protect the Druze population. On July 16, Israel hit a number of strategic targets in Damascus.
The Druze are a tight-knit ethnoreligious Arabic-speaking group living mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan who adhere to a specific faith that split from Shiite Islam in the Middle Ages. Israeli Druzes live in Galilee in the north of the country and serve in the Israeli army and police along with Jews. However, after Israel gained control over the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War in 1967, most of the Druzes living there have preserved their Syrian citizenship. Syria’s Druze population numbers around 700,000, being the third biggest ethnoreligious minority after the Kurds and Alawites.