UNSC to meet on Syria as Guterres condemns Israeli airstrikes protecting Druze minority

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon accused the UN chief of “moral bankruptcy” for his silence on “brutal slaughter” of the Druze.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to meet Thursday in an emergency session to discuss the violence in Syria’s southern as-Suwayda province, as UN chief Antonio Guterres comes under fire for condemning Israeli airstrikes meant to protect the Druze minority there.

Syria called Wednesday for the UNSC “to assume its responsibilities and take urgent and concrete measures to put an end to the repeated Israeli aggression against the territory of a sovereign state and UN member.”

When the Islamist HTS group took over Syria in December, Israel swiftly took over the demilitarized zone between the countries and the Syrian Golan Heights overlooking the region, and declared that the southern part of Syria had to remain clear of the country’s armed forces.

As it has before, Israel then intervened after days of deadly clashes between Bedouin and Druze in the province that abuts Israel’s northern border, when the Syrian government sent in troops and tanks to ostensibly restore order.

The soldiers reportedly instead murdered hundreds of Druze, including some lying in hospitals after being wounded, as well as degrading community leaders by hitting them and forcing them to shave off their mustaches.

Israeli Druze, who are closely related to their Syrian coreligionists, not only demanded military action but even broke through the border fence by the hundreds Wednesday to help defend against the attempt to “massacre our people and destroy our existence,” as a leading Syrian Druze sheikh put it.

This occurred despite pleas by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let the IDF do the job of protecting the Jewish state’s “Druze brothers,” which the army could do more effectively, and without risking the killing or capture of civilians in what is still an enemy country.

The IAF struck Syrian military targets in as-Suwayda as well as the Defense Ministry and areas near the presidential palace in Damascus, warning that it would continue until the Syrian forces retreated.

In voicing “alarm” Wednesday over “the continued escalation of violence in Sweida,” the UN secretary-general only mentioned “reports of arbitrary killings and acts that fan the flames of sectarian tensions” while saying that he “unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians.”

He also firmly backed Syria’s position, saying, “I condemn Israel’s escalatory airstrikes and reports of the IDF’s redeployment of forces in the Golan. I call for an immediate cessation of all violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Ambassador Danny Dannon slammed Guterres, saying that he “continues to expose his moral bankruptcy. While members of the Druze community are being brutally slaughtered in Syria, he once again chooses silence.”

“Instead of calling for swift action in Syria, he chooses to vilify Israel—the only country actively fighting the forces of evil in the region,” Dannon added.

The UNSC meeting is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Around noon, Syrian government officials and Druze leaders announced a cease-fire and troops were seen beginning to leave the Druze-dominated province.