Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, delivered a televised speech early Thursday morning amid developments in the south of the country.
Al-Sharaa accused Israel of attempting to undermine Syria’s internal stability. “The Israeli entity has always accustomed us to attempts to harm our stability and create fratricidal wars - since the fall of the Assad regime,” he claimed.
He further claimed that Israel aims to turn Syria into a zone of anarchy, drag it into internal conflicts, and divide the country.
Al-Sharaa added that Syria faced a choice of direct confrontation with Israel but chose, in his words, the interest of the Syrian people, entrusting the responsibility for maintaining security in the Sweida region to local factions and the Druze leadership.
During his speech, he directly addressed the Syrian Druze community, emphasizing, “Protecting your rights is at the top of our priorities.”
Concluding his remarks, al-Sharaa warned against groups that, in his view, are “working to drag Syria into dangerous directions.”
His statements come hours after a source in the Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed to the local radio station Sham FM that Syrian regime forces began withdrawing from the city Sweida in southern Syria. According to the source, the withdrawal followed the deployment of local internal security forces in the city.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that agreements have been reached to end the clashes in Syria.
"We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria," Rubio said. "We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight. This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do."
Earlier on Wednesday, Sheikh Yosef Jarboua, a representative of the spiritual leadership of the Druze in Syria, confirmed that a ceasefire agreement has been reached between the Syrian regime and the Druze forces in the Sweida province.
Jarboua stated that the agreement includes the integration of the province within the Syrian state. The Syrian Ministry of the Interior announced that regime forces have already started setting up checkpoints at the entrances to the city in an attempt to restore full control of the area by the Syrian state.
However, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, a member of the Druze leadership who is more identified with the militant line, denies the existence of the ceasefire. "There is no agreement. We call for continued resistance against the armed and criminal terrorist gangs, who came to massacre our people and destroy our existence," he said.
He added: "The gangs must lay down their weapons and surrender themselves. Anyone who lays down their weapons is under our protection - they will not be humiliated or harmed. We warn that any person or entity that deviates from this united position and contacts or agrees with the other side unilaterally - will bear legal and social responsibility, without exception and without forgiveness."