Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa have agreed on a ceasefire with the support of Washington, the US special representative for Syria Tom Barak said.
The decision is supported by Turkey and Jordan.
The US envoy called on the Druze, Bedouin and Sunnis to lay down their arms and, together with other minorities, to “create a new, unified Syrian identity, promoting peace and prosperity with our neighbors“.
It was previously reported that the Syrian authorities were preparing to send special forces to the southern province of Suwayda to stop the ongoing clashes there.
“The Syrian leadership is making every effort to stop the fighting and in this regard, plans to send special forces there soon to end the armed conflicts on the ground“, said a statement published by the office of interim president Al-Sharaa on its Telegram channel.
Syrian TV reported that security forces “are already preparing units to be sent to Suwayda“ as part of the implementation of the directive of the country's interim president.
The situation in southern Syria escalated on July 13, when clashes broke out between militias and the Druze mountain self-defense forces in the province of Suwayda.
On July 15, the Syrian army entered the administrative center of the province of the same name and began clearing it in order to stabilize the situation. Soon after, Israel began targeting Syrian military convoys, claiming to be trying to protect the province's Druze population, and on July 16, it shelled several strategic sites in the Syrian capital.
The Druze are a distinct Arabic-speaking ethno-confessional group whose representatives live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. There are 700,000 Druze in Syria, making them the third-largest religious and ethnic minority after the Kurds and Alawites.