Assad Receives Lebanese Druze Delegation

Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
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Assad Receives Lebanese Druze Delegation

Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)
Assad receives the Lebanese delegation on Sunday. (Syrian presidency)

Syrian President Bashar Assad received in Damascus on Sunday head of the Lebanese Democratic Party MP Talal Arslan and a large Druze delegation that included spiritual leader of the sect in Lebanon Nasseredine al-Gharib.

The delegation also included various Lebanese political and partisan figures, including former minister Wiab Wahhab and Saleh al-Gharib.

Assad said the delegation “represented the true face of Lebanon,” reported the state news agency SANA.

They represent the majority of Lebanese “who believe in the need and importance of the relationship with Syria and who have been loyal to it throughout the years of war,” he added.

Ties between the neighboring countries should not be affected by changing conditions on the ground, rather they must be strengthened, he continued.

“Syria will always stand by the Lebanese people and support it on various levels,” he stressed.

For his part, Arslan said the suffering of the Lebanese and Syrian people is the result of “new colonialism that is trying to violate the rights of people and dignities of nations.”

Sides that are hostile to Syria are hostile to Lebanon and Arabism, he declared.

No one in Lebanon agrees to the severing of relations between Lebanon and Syria, he claimed.

Wahhab underscored the importance and standing of Syria in the region, saying the “Arabs won’t find a place among regional powers except with the return of Syria.”

The Lebanese delegation later visited the Druze-majority city of Jaramana in the Damascus countryside. They met with various political and Druze officials from the southern Sweida and Golan regions.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Druze spiritual leader in Sweida, Hikmat al-Hajiri, did not attend the meeting. No reason was given for his absence.

Activists from Sweida, however, attributed his absence to tensions and concerns over the eruption of infighting in the region.

The tensions stem from ongoing negotiations taking place between the counter-terrorism force, affiliated with the Syrian al-Liwa Party, and National Defense Forces (NDF) over returning military vehicles that were seized by the force.

In return, a member of the counter-terrorism force, who is being held by the state security forces, would be released.

Clashes had erupted on Saturday between the Syrian al-Liwa Party and NDF in al-Harisa town in eastern Daraa on Saturday.

Six members of the NDF were wounded. The NDF was forced to retreat from the town and they set up checkpoints inside Sweida city on the road leading to the provinces’ eastern countryside.

The NDF also brought in more members and harassed pedestrians in regions held by the counter-terrorism force. People were assaulted and four civilians were kidnapped, forcing their relatives to surround the headquarters of the NDF in Sweida city to demand their release. They threatened to resort to force if their demands are not met.



Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.

The deal, which included a complete cessation of hostilities, was signed by interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the SDF's commander, Mazloum Abdi.

Under the deal, whose text was posted online by the presidency, all civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria will be integrated within the state, which will thus take over control of borders, airports and oil and gas fields.

The SDF agrees to support the government in combating remnants of deposed president Bashar al-Assad's regime, and any threats to Syria's security and unity.

Since Assad was overthrown by Sharaa's Islamist forces in December, groups backed by Türkiye, one of Sharaa's main supporters, have clashed with the SDF, the main ally in a US coalition against ISIS militants in Syria.

The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.

Türkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups, and Sharaa's new Damascus administration had been pressing the SDF to merge into newly-minted state security forces.

Abdi had previously expressed a willingness for his forces to be part of the new defense ministry, but said they should join as a bloc rather than individuals, an idea that was rejected by the new government.

The US and Türkiye’s Western allies list the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG or the SDF.