US Warned of ‘No Plan B’ for Syria After Realizing ‘Plan A’ Was a Sectarian Death Trap

Israel’s claimed interest in protecting the Druze poses a unique challenge for Damascus and the United States as the Hebrew state has about 150,000 Druze, many of whom serve in the Israeli military and police and openly advocate for intervention against Syria in Al-Sharaa’s US-backed policies in Syria. Israel, which views the Druze as a strategic asset for its territorial goals in southern Syria, has conducted numerous strikes from December to July to weaken Syria’s military and secure the Golan Heights. However, the majority of Druze in Syria have unequivocally rejected any Israeli endorsement and have asserted their Syrian identity on countless occasions.  The persistent tribal conflict between the Bedouin and Druze in the Southern Suwayda province is exposing the shortcomings of Trump’s policy regarding Syria, with each murder, kidnapping and rape indicating that the United States has naively or perhaps deliberately walked itself into a sectarian death trap, fueled by Israeli expansionism and the realities of appointing a former Al-Qaeda executive at the helm of Syria. 

The Druze community in Syria is thought to comprise approximately 1 million individuals. However, despite this significant number, there was minimal strife between them and the government in Damascus during the Assad era, which concentrated on suppressing the rebellion in predominantly Sunni regions. The Druze community in Syria is mainly concentrated in the southwestern region, especially in Suwayda near Jordan and parts of Quneitra province near the Golan Heights, with a presence in Jaramana, Damascus. In Israel, the Druze primarily reside in the northern regions and the occupied Golan, and while most Druze in Israel identify as Israeli citizens, more than 20,000 living in the occupied Golan still identify as Syrians and have close ties to family on the other side of the border. In Lebanon, Druze are mostly located in mountainous areas like Chouf and Aley, as well as Hasbaya in the south.

Sheikh Hamoud al-Hanawi of the Unitarian Druze Community in Syria has highlighted the importance of unity for the country’s future. He is committed to promoting the common good and ensuring full citizenship for all Syrians, which he sees as vital for national stability and unity. Sheikh al-Hanawi have stressed on many occasions that Suwayda residents reject foreign interference in conflicts that do not serve national interests, asserting that Suwayda is integral to Syria and criticising Israel’s interference. Hanawi advocates for the creation of a new constitution that reflects the hopes of the entire Syrian population and emphasises the importance of proportional representation in government to guarantee equitable involvement from all segments of Syrian society.  Sheikh Youssef Jarbouh is one of three senior Druze religious leaders in Syria. He was recently instrumental in securing a ceasefire whilst reaching an agreement with the Syrian interim government to fully integrate Suwayda within the state institutions. Like Hanawi, Jarbouh sees Israel as an opportunist foreign actor whose geopolitical interest is not aligned with Druze’s vision of a unified Syria.

For Israel, any ceasefire between the Druze, the Bedouin, and the Sunnis is unwelcome, as they are deeply committed to destabilising Syria’s unity. Israel is backing the Druze Military Council and Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri as the exclusive and ultimate leaders of the Druze, aiming to sow division within the Druze community to sustain their influence and control over the Suwayda Province. The ceasefire brokered last week by Druze leader Sheikh Youssef Jarbouh and backed by Jordan and Turkey and other neighbouring countries, includes an immediate halt to all military operations, the withdrawal of army units to their barracks, and the formation of a joint monitoring committee composed of state officials and Druze clerics to oversee the ceasefire, something Israel will ultimately try to derail at the first opportunity.  

Yesterday, “military escalation continued in Um Al-Zaytoun and Shahba in northern Suwayda countryside, where hit-and-run clashes are ongoing between local Druze fighters on one side and armed tribal groups backed by Al Sharaa Defence Ministry forces on the other”, stated The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR). The observatory’s report indicates that the tribal groups are attempting to advance towards Qanawat, the birthplace and home of Israeli-backed Sheikh Al-Hijri.  According to SOHR, an Israeli warplane was seen launching a warning shot over the skies near Shahba as tension escalated in the area. Israeli aircraft overflights over the area are exacerbating the tensions.

The Bedouins engaged in the conflict in Syria are not just one group; they consist of various Arab tribes from the desert areas of this war-ravaged nation, especially the Badiya. Among the notable Bedouin tribes are the Baggara, al-Anezi, al-Mahamids, al-Qateifan, al-Saud, and al-Wahban. Historically nomadic pastoralists, they have transitioned to predominantly semi-sedentary lifestyles, yet they still function within kinship-based tribal structures governed by a ‘Sheikh.  Sunni Islam serves as a unifying factor for the Bedouins, corresponding with the predominant sect in Syria. Israel is not the first foreign actor to meddle in the relationship between the Bedouins and Druze; during the 19th century, the leaders of the Egyptian and Ottoman empires took advantage of existing divisions, inciting Bedouins to raid Druze settlements. Meanwhile, the Druze fought against conscription and oppression, which further intensified their mutual distrust. Following the clash between the Bedouins and Druze tribes, Syria’s interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, quickly faced accusations, as news emerged that his forces were aligning with Bedouins, which provided Israel with an ideal justification to continue striking Syrian Army assets, including its headquarters in Damascus last week.

Yesterday, Syria’s interim government forces, who had ventured inside the city of Suwayda to clear the weeklong clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes, started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city. According to The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, 500 people had been killed by the time of Al-Sharaa’s troops’ withdrawal on Thursday. Druze anti-government militias are said to have carried out “massacres” against Bedouins in southern Syria’s Suwayda province following the withdrawal of government forces. U.S. Special Envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who has participated in the tricky ceasefire negotiations, stated that those responsible for hostilities on both sides must face consequences. (Read more here…)

“What has occurred is dreadful. It’s unimaginable,” Barrack remarked. “The Syrian authorities must be held accountable, but they also need to be tasked with the responsibility of restoring order.”

Yesterday, Tom Barrack, who is also US ambassador to Turkey, was interviewed by the Associated Press (AP), during which he stated that “Israel’s intervention creates another very confusing chapter and  came at a very bad time” adding ““Whether you accept that Israel can intervene in a sovereign state is a different question.”

VIDEO: US envoy reiterates Washington’s support for the new government in Syria (Source: Associated Press)

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Reportedly, 2,500 troops are bound to arrive in Suwayda city to enforce the ceasefire. Under US pressure, Syria’s interim government has now established a security perimeter around Suwayda in a cosmetic attempt to halt the ongoing conflict, while working alongside local officials to arrange buses for the evacuation of approximately 1,500 Bedouins. Ahmad al-Dalati, the province’s internal security chief from the Interior Ministry, stated that “this initiative would also facilitate the return of Druze civilians who have been displaced from their city”. For those who know Ahmed Al Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) better, they certainly haven’t forgotten June 10, 2015, when Jabhat al-Nusra massacred Druze in the village of Qalb Loze, in the Idlib province, or when Daesh kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their village in the Suwayda province in July 2018. Nothing new under the sun…

Reminder that when the Syrian government’s armed forces were an al-Qaeda affiliate, they massacred Druze villagers.

Please watch our full video on YouTube: https://t.co/vupRlNFisf pic.twitter.com/2qA7AXrIQO

— Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) July 21, 2025

Trump and his administration recognise their inability to unite the country, forcibly admitting they have “no Plan B” to remediate to a situation any serious analyst would characterise as foreseeable. Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s (Julani) thugs are once again engaged in heinous crimes, including the abduction of dozens of Syrian Druze women. The man has a long and bloddy history with the Druze, hence the importance to realise that these sectarian violence are not occurring in a vacuum, and therefore should be understood as a direct consequence of a US impossible balancing act, which simultaneously recognises and glorifies a known senior terrorist figure of Al Qaeda as the interim President of Syria, while allowing “Israel’s fortress of fragmentation” to reshape the core of the Arab World…

Elfadil Ibrahim reports for Responsible Statecraft…

Israel blindsides Trump in self-serving effort to break up Syria

American special envoy says strike on Damascus came at a very bad time!

Just days before Israeli F-35s screamed over Damascus, the improbable seemed within reach. U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack, leveraging his dual role as Ambassador to Turkey and point man on Syria, was brokering painstaking back-channel talks between two historic enemies.

The Syrian government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former Islamist militant turned statesman, signaled openness to a non-aggression pact with Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar publicly welcomed Syria into “the peace and normalisation circle in the Middle East.”

By July 12, leaks suggested a deal was drawing closer: al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, forced to move quickly in exchange for much-needed security guarantees, reconstruction aid and investment, had reportedly met directly with Israeli officials in Azerbaijan. In his ongoing quest for a Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. President Donald Trump had personally met al-Sharaa in Riyadh and thereafter started dismantling decades of sanctions, betting big on Syria’s rehabilitation and regional integration.

Central to this U.S. vision was the consolidation of a stable, unitary Syrian state. Barrack is spearheading this arduous task, working to dismantle potential sources of fragmentation. Currently, his most critical, and contentious mission is the merger of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — America’s ground allies against ISIS — into the nascent Syrian national army. Barrack’s message to SDF commander Mazloum Abdi during tense Damascus meetings earlier this month was uncompromising: “One country, one army, one people.”

Barrack bluntly dismissed Kurdish demands for federalism or autonomous military structures as unworkable and destabilising, arguing “in all of these countries what we learned is federalism doesn’t work.”

This drive for a unified military command is the bedrock of U.S. strategy to prevent Syria’s balkanization and create a viable partner for regional peace, including normalisation with Israel. The eruption of violence in Syria’s Druze heartland of Suwayda on July 11 provided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the perfect catalyst to derail this fragile progress.

When clashes broke out between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes, Syria’s government intervened to restore order — reportedly notifying Israel in advance about troop movements, clarifying that the move was not intended as a threat to its southern neighbour. According to reports, Syria’s government misread the situation, believing it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to deploy troops, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralised state, and influenced by nascent security talks with Israel. Israel, however, viewed the situation as an invitation for escalation.

Defense Minister Israel Katz framed devastating airstrikes on Syrian tanks and later in Damascus itself as a moral imperative: protecting a persecuted Druze minority, a group with a substantial and visible presence in Israel, including in the Israeli military. “The regime [Syrian government] sent troops south of Damascus…and began slaughtering the Druze,” Netanyahu declared a day after Israeli bombs tore into the General Command Headquarters of the Syrian Army.

Israel’s actions — encroaching into Syrian territory and conducting hundreds of airstrikes since the fall of Assad and now bombing Damascus during sensitive negotiations — directly undermine U.S. policy by preventing the consolidation of a sovereign and unified Syria capable of reclaiming its south and becoming a viable partner for the U.S. vision.

Crucially, the very Druze community Netanyahu claims to protect largely rejects this imposed patronage. Two out of the three spiritual leaders of the Druze community in Syria — Sheikhs Hamoud al-Hanawi and Youssef Jarbouh — emphasise their Syrian identity and demand protection from the Syrian state, not external powers. Sheikh Jarbouh, on the back of recent events in Suwayda, insisted solutions must come from within Syria, also sending a message to Israel that “any attack on the Syrian state is an attack on us…We are part of Syria.”

Among Syria’s Druze leadership, only Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri champions Israel’s intervention, labelling the government “terrorist criminal gangs” — a view rejected by many within his community. This isolation was articulated by Laith al-Balous, leader of the influential “Rijal al Karama” (Men of Dignity) militia. Formed during Syria’s civil war to defend the Druze against both the deposed Assad regime and extremists, al-Balous forcefully countered al-Hijri on Al Jazeera: “there is one of the leaders who took the sect to another direction. We, as the people of the Suwayda Governorate, reject it and do not accept it,” adding that we must “stand with our Syrian people.”

Israel’s inability to act as sole guarantor of the Druze community’s security in Syria was laid bare on Friday when — just days after bombing Syria’s Defense Ministry and presidential palace — an Israeli official tacitly admitted Damascus alone could stabilise the crisis. “In light of ongoing instability,” the unnamed official told Reuters, Israel would now “allow limited entry of Syrian internal security forces into Suwayda district for the next 48 hours.”

This reversal implicitly acknowledged that the Syrian government — whose troops and command structure Israel had targeted—remained the indispensable actor needed to restore order and act as a buffer between the warring Bedouin tribes and Druze militias. Indeed, these localised clashes were the underlying trigger which drew in Syrian government forces, whose intervention then became Israel’s pretext for bombing.

The U.S. administration, blindsided by Israel’s bombings, scrambled to contain the fallout. Officials revealed they explicitly “told the Israelis to stand down and take a breath,” urging direct talks with Damascus instead of bombs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly framed the strikes as a dangerous impediment to building a “peaceful and stable Syria,” undermining months of U.S. political capital invested in al-Sharaa’s government. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce pointedly clarified that “the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes.”

Most recently, Special Envoy Barrack went a step further, siding explicitly with Syria and noting that the government “has conducted themselves as best they can…to bring a diverse society together,” adding that Israel’s air assault “came at a very bad time.”

Israel’s strikes expose a cynical pattern that echoes its sabotage of nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran. Just as Netanyahu lobbied relentlessly against U.S.-Iran diplomacy — creating conditions for Israel’s unilateral strikes that later succeeded in luring Washington into conflict — he now undermines U.S.-Syrian rapprochement. The contradiction here is particularly glaring: Israel has spent the last few weeks publicly urging Syria to join the Abraham Accords; yet it also actively attacks the very government forces it claims to want as partners.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar — who previously dismissed al-Sharaa’s government as a “bunch of jihadists — openly championed Syria’s federalisation in February 2025, insisting on dividing the country along sectarian lines to ensure respect for “different ways of life.” This vision, which included lobbying Washington to allow Russia to retain its bases on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to counter Turkey’s influence and keep Syria decentralised, stands in direct opposition to the unified, stable state that the Syrians, neighboring states, and the Trump administration are working to build.

Israel’s escalation in Syria, which awkwardly coincides with U.S. efforts to lift sanctions and establish unified military control over Syrian territory, places the Trump administration in a tight corner. Through its recent manoeuvres, Israel has signalled its intent to control Syria’s destiny, regardless of the damage to U.S. strategy.

With each bomb dropped on Damascus, Israel isn’t just attacking Syrian infrastructure. It is dismantling the very pillars of a potential regional order of sovereign states based on stability and integration, revealing a fundamental divergence that is becoming increasingly costly for Washington, and for the wider region.

The ultimate test for the Trump administration is whether it can restrain Israel’s aggressive approach and allow its own vision for a unified, stable Syria to take root.

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