In a recent post on X, U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack spoke of American dismay about a ‘renewed escalation’ in the primarily Druze province of al-Suwayda’ in southern Syria, where security control remains split between Syrian government forces on the peripheries (mainly the northern and western countrysides) and local armed Druze groups, nominally united under the ‘National Guard’ endorsed by Suwayda’ Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hijri.
For their part, pro-‘National Guard’ sources such as ‘Jethro Press’ have asserted that the government has tightened a siege on Suwayda’ in a bid to try to force the Druze population to submit. At the same time, some internal controversy has emerged over the effective deportation of a local critic of Hijri: Atef Hunaydi of the village of Majdal, who has since been made to relocate to Damascus.
While not all the Druze armed groups are wholly united in terms of endorsing Hijri’s notion of ‘Mount Bashan’ and the idea of complete separation from Syria and/or annexation by Israel, a rejectionist stance towards the Damascus government continues to predominate among them.
To discuss these issues and more, below is an interview conducted on 6 September with a media activist for Bayraq Saba' al-Jabal, an affiliate of the Rijal al-Karama Movement that was founded during the war by Wahid al-Bal‘ous (a Druze shaykh), who was assassinated in 2015 (likely by the Assad regime). Rijal al-Karama still asserts that it follows Wahid’s path, though his two sons Fahad and Layth are aligned with Damascus, with the latter currently serving as a member of the new Syrian parliament.
Q: Recently the 11th anniversary of the martyrdom of Shaykh Wahid al-Bal‘ous has passed. Of course the Rijal al-Karama Movement says it is still on his path, and in al-Suwayda’ today many people speak about the Mount Bashan project and separation from Syria. Do you think there is an inconsistency between Wahid al-Bal‘ous’ path and support for the Mount Bashan project today?