Prominent Lebanese Druze leader says he will visit Syria soon as tensions with Israel simmer

BEIRUT (AP) — A prominent Druze leader in Lebanon said Sunday that he will soon visit Syria to meet its interim leader as tensions simmer between members of the minority group, the war-torn country’s interim government, and Israel.

“The free Syrians must be cautious of the plots of Israel,” veteran Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said at a news conference Sunday, accusing Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating sectarian division and chaos in the country. “In Syria there is a plot for sabotage. There is a plot for sabotage in the region and for the Arabs’ national security.”

Syrian Druze gunmen have clashed in recent days with government security forces on the city of Jaramana, on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.

Since the downfall of President Bashar Assad in December, Israel has pushed its forces into southern Syria to create a demilitarized buffer zone. Israel’s defense ministry said Saturday that it was instructing the military to prepare to defend Jaramana and protect the Druze.

In the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida, many who protested against the Assad government in recent years have also protested against Israel’s airstrikes and military push into the country.

The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Over half of the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

Jumblatt is one of Lebanon’s most prominent political leaders and arguably the Mideast’s most powerful Druze figure. He is both an outspoken critic of Israel and a supporter of the Palestinians, but also spoke out against the Assad dynasty in Syria.

He last visited Syria in December, days after a lightning insurgency led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew Bashar Assad, and met with interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. In 2015 during the Syrian civil war, Jumblatt negotiated with Syrian opposition in Idlib, following reports of persecution and attacks on the Druze who lived in the northwestern province by extremist groups.