Syria, Rojava, Israel, and Gaza
This doesn’t speak well for the new Islamic-fundamentalist government in Syria:
[There was] a wave of killings by Sunni fighters in Alawite communities along Syria’s Mediterranean coast from March 7 to 9. The violence came in response to a day-old rebellion organized by former officers loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad that left 200 security forces dead, according to the government.
A Reuters investigation has pieced together how the massacres unfolded, identifying a chain of command leading from the attackers directly to men who serve alongside Syria’s new leaders in Damascus. Reuters found nearly 1,500 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing. The investigation revealed 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting against the religious minority, long associated with the fallen Assad government.1
The current Syrian government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa came to power as head of an Islamist group “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which was previously al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, known as the Nusra Front.”
One of the developments to watch will be the position of Al-Sharaa’s government and the US toward the autonomous Kurdish region of Rojava I northeaster Syria, which is controlled by moderate (by Middle Eastern terms) secular government;
During the Biden administration, Syria was a sore point in US-Turkey ties. US troops first entered Syria in 2014 to fight the Islamic State militant (IS) group. They partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey views the SDF as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK has waged a decades-long guerrilla war in southern Turkey and is labelled a terrorist organisation by the US and the European Union.
“You can’t have a stable Syria without addressing the PKK. The US has to work with the Turks, otherwise there will be another war,” Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat and opposition activist, told [Middle East Eye] .
During his first term in office, Trump tried to withdraw US troops from Syria. His own officials hamstrung him, and his former defence secretary, Jim Mattis, resigned over a partial troop withdrawal.
Although US troops were ostensibly in Syria to fight IS, they came to be seen as a force denying territory to Iran. With Tehran’s ally Assad gone, that rationale no longer exists.2
The strategic considerations for the US in keeping some US troops in the Kurdish area and supporting its autonomous status had much more to do with secured oil supplies from the area than with any great concern for the democratic prospects of the Kurdish people. But their presence has also served the latter goal up until now.
Syria under the Assad regime was friendly to Iran. So Israel was happy to see the regime fall. But Israel has also been seizing more territory inside Syria than just the Golan Heights, which Israel also illegally occupies.
A new report in the Times of Israel claims that Al-Sharaa’s government is not event including a demand to return the Goal Heights in its current negotiation with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel.3
Zvi Bar’el adds some detail to that picture, noting that Israel and Syria could agree to postpone negotiations over the Golan Heights until a later time. But the newly-Israeli occupied territories are an immediate issue:
The new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has so far successfully blocked Iran's military and political access routes, depriving Hezbollah of its most important supply route. Al-Sharaa declared that he isn't interested in conflict with Israel, and he hasn't ruled out the possibility that Syria would join the Abraham Accords "under suitable conditions." He has said most of the "right things" to date, and he has received a valuable reward that is reflected not only in Trump's warm handshake, but through the lifting of sanctions against Syria.
"Only" a minor issue called the Golan Heights remains – plus the fate of the territories in southern Syria and the Golan Heights that Israel took under its control during the war. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar already clarified last week that there's nothing preventing Syria from joining the Abraham Accords if Damascus is willing to concede the Golan Heights. Sa'ar effectively gave a stamp of approval to cooperating with Al-Sharaa, who until only a few weeks ago was still considered a dangerous Islamist Jihadist.4 [my emphasis]
But he notes that Netanyahu’s government could also take the position that “the Golan Heights isn't even up for discussion, since Trump himself recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan,” the latter yet another piece of evidence of the incompetence of Trump’s diplomacy. And that position could push Syria to be even less willing to compromise on the newly-occupied territories Israel has seized.
Meanwhile, despite the professed objections of Peace President Trump, Netanyahu continues the genocide in Gaza5:
And the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank is also accelerating: (6)
In recent months, Israeli forces and settlers have intensified efforts to expel roughly 2,500 Palestinians living in a cluster of villages in the southern West Bank region of Masafer Yatta. In early May, when the military razed most of Khilet Al-Dabe’, it was the largest demolition in the area to date. Now, a new military directive threatens to fast-track the destruction of a dozen more villages.6
Syrian forces massacred 1,500 Alawites. The chain of command led to Damascus. Reuters 04/30/2025. <https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/> (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
Matthews, Sean (2025): How Turkey and Qatar are playing an outsized role in Trump's new Middle East. Middle East Eye 06/11/2025. <https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-and-qatar-outsized-role-trump-new-middle-east> (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
Yohanan, Murit (2025): Report: Syria not demanding Golan Heights as part of deal with Israel. Times of Israel 06/30/2025. <https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-syria-not-demanding-golan-heights-as-part-of-deal-with-israel/> (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
Bar’el, Zvi (2025): In His Quest to Expand the Abraham Accords, Trump Faces a Series of Unresolved Hurdles. Haaretz 06/30/2025. <https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2025-06-30/ty-article/.premium/in-his-quest-to-expand-the-abraham-accords-trump-faces-a-series-of-unresolved-hurdles/00000197-c046-da62-a9ff-e35f26e40000> (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
Netanyahu steps up Gaza assault as Trump demands peace deal. Channel 4 News [Britain] 06/30/2025. (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
Abraham, Yuval & Adra, Basel (2025): New Israeli directive expedites ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta. +972 Magazine/Local Call 06/25/2025. <https://www.972mag.com/masafer-yatta-ethnic-cleansing-israeli-directive/> (Accessed: 2025-30-06).
See also: Israeli settlers rampage at a military base in the West Bank. FRANCE 24 English 06/30/2025.