Syrian president says country should not be unified 'with blood'

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said he rejected attempts at creating autonomy in Syria and warned that the country's unification "should not be with blood" following a month of sectarian violence.

Speaking on state TV on Sunday, Sharaa pushed back against demands by hundreds of Druze protesters in Syria's southern Sweida province calling for self-determination for the religious minority.

"We still have another battle ahead of us to unify Syria, and it should not be with blood and military force... it should be through some kind of understanding because Syria is tired of war," Sharaa said.

Since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in December, Sharaa has struggled to stymie violence across the country, while a number of religious and political minorities have called for the decentralisation of power.

"I do not see Syria as at risk of division. Some people desire a process of dividing Syria and trying to establish cantons... This matter is impossible," said Sharaa. 

"Some parties seek to gain power through regional power, Israel or others. This is also extremely difficult and cannot be implemented."

Violence between members of the Druze minority, Bedouin tribesmen and state forces has seen more than 1,600 people killed in Sweida since the beginning of July.

It also followed further violence in the coastal province of Latakia, where attacks by alleged Assad loyalists provoked a violent sectarian backlash against the minority Alawi population, of which the former president and his family were members.

At least 1,500 Alawi were killed in the subsequent violence, with a Reuters investigation tracing much of it back to officials in Damascus.

In his comments on Sunday, Sharaa conceded that they had "witnessed many violations from all sides... some members of the security forces and army in Syria also carried out some violations".

He said the state was required "to hold all perpetrators of violations to account".

Saturday's demonstrations in Sweida included calls for Sharaa's overthrow as well as displays of the Israeli flag.

Israel bombed government forces last month, claiming it was acting to defend the Druze population.

Sharaa's government has also been in talks with the semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration that controls much of the north and northeast.

Implementation of a 10 March deal on integrating its civil and military institutions into the state has been held up by arguments over issues such as decentralisation, which Damascus has rejected.

Joseph Daher, a Swiss Syrian professor at the University of Lausanne, told Middle East Eye earlier this month that he was concerned by Sharaa's approach to Syria's post-Assad reconciliation.

"Sharaa does not want to deal with political and social actors that are organised," he said.

He told MEE that he saw the new government pursuing the creation of a new "ruling regime" with centralised power, but it still lacked the capacity to effectively assert its authority.

"I think the lack and the failure to control Sweida, not only because of Israeli attacks, but also local resistance, is also an indication that this is one of the contradictions of this government," Daher said.

"That it wants to seek monopolisation, centralisation of power, but at the same time is quite weak - whether militarily, human capacities, financially, politically."