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By World Israel News Staff
A senior American diplomat chided Israel’s intervention last week on behalf of the Druze minority, calling the Israeli strikes in Syria “very confusing” and poorly timed.
Last week, violence erupted in the predominantly Druze province of as-Suweyda in southern Syria, after radical Sunni Bedouin militias assaulted and abducted a Druze vendor on a road to Damascus.
When Druze militias retaliated, the Syrian regime deployed armored forces to the region, leading to accusations by local Druze that regime soldiers actively abetted the slaughter of dozens of Druze civilians and captured fighters.
Israel, which has warned Damascus not to deploy forces in the as-Suweyda or Dara’a provinces in southern Syria, responded to the killings with strikes on Syrian forces in As-Suweyda, as well as bombings at the entrance to the Syrian defense ministry headquarters.
On Monday, Thomas Barrack, Trump’s Ambassador to Turkey who also serves as special envoy to the Syrian regime, criticized Israel’s intervention in Syria, warning in an interview with The Associated Press that the strikes endangered a broader diplomatic push and weakened the new government.
Barrack did condemn the violence in as-Suweyda, but appeared to blame both the Bedouin and Druze militias equally, while backing the Syrian government’s response.
Labeling the “killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” as “intolerable,” Barrack defended “the current government of Syria,” saying that “in my opinion, [the government] has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”
The ambassador claimed Israel did not notify the US prior to its strikes in Syria, distancing the Trump administration from Israel’s intervention.
“The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”
Admonishing Jerusalem, Barrack said Israel’s defense of the Syrian Druze “creates another very confusing chapter,” and “came at a very bad time.”
The US brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Syria over the weekend, after regime forces began withdrawing from as-Suweyda, as part of a separate agreement between Damascus and Druze leaders.
