Shafaq News – Washington
The Trump administration has urged Israel to halt its military strikes on Syrian government targets and instead engage in direct talks with Damascus, a senior US official told Axios on Wednesday.
According to the official, the escalation jeopardizes emerging discussions between Israel and Syria over a possible security arrangement. “There had been significant progress,” the source said, referring to preliminary talks aimed at initiating normalization between the two countries.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the United States is “very concerned” by Israel’s military actions and wants the violence to end.
“We told the Israelis to stand down and take a breath,” the senior official said, adding that Washington is pressing for direct Israeli-Syrian dialogue to address the crisis.
The backdrop to Israel’s latest strikes is a surge in violence in southern Syria’s Suwayda province, where a Druze armed groups clashed with a Bedouin gang.
When the Syrian military deployed tanks to Suwayda to quell the unrest, Israeli warplanes targeted the armored units. Damascus, reportedly by Axios, informed Israel in advance that the tank deployment was not directed at it. However, Israeli officials argued that the tanks entered a demilitarized zone that Israel — which maintains a presence in western Syria — insists must remain free of heavy weaponry.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 250 people have been killed in ongoing clashes in and around Suwayda. While the Syrian Ministry of Health said that Israeli strikes killed three people and injured 34 others.
The Israeli government has come under increasing pressure from its own Druze citizens, who accuse Syrian government-aligned militias of carrying out a massacre against the Druze community in Suwayda. The Druze comprise roughly 2% of Israel’s population and wield significant political influence.
Since yesterday, Israel expanded its military operations, striking multiple Syrian government positions in the south and in Damascus. Meanwhile, hundreds of Israeli Druze crossed the border fence in the occupied Golan Heights and entered the demilitarized buffer zone in an attempt to reach Suwayda.
However, the senior US official revealed to Axios that American intelligence does not corroborate Israeli claims of Syrian government involvement in atrocities against Druze civilians. He added that Israeli decision-making appears influenced by political pressure from its domestic Druze community.
Despite US calls for restraint, the Israeli Army announced on Wednesday that it was deploying reinforcements to the Syrian border “to facilitate more strikes and stop the attacks against the Druze.”