US envoy Tom Barrack said that Syrian government forces were not responsible for atrocities committed against Druze in southern Syria, and that the armed fighters who carried out the attacks were more than likely Islamic State militants disguised in government uniforms.
Barrack, who is President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria as well as ambassador to Turkey, made the comments in an interview with Reuters in Beirut on Tuesday.
Syria’s southern province of Sweida was the site of sectarian violence between the majority Druze community and Sunni Bedouins.
Around 1,000 people were killed in the clashes in southern Syria, with reports of what appeared to be government-aligned forces carrying out scores of summary executions of Druze.
The conflict was internationalised after Israel intervened, bombing Syrian government forces. Israel cast the bombings as an effort to protect Druze. Israel is home to around 150,000 Druze.
Barrack also cast doubt on video footage that circulated widely on social media alleged to be of Syrian government forces committing atrocities, saying it could have been easily altered.
‘The Syrian troops haven’t gone into the city. These atrocities that are happening are not happening by the Syrian regime troops. They’re not even in the city because they agreed with Israel that they would not go in,’ he told Reuters.
Israel’s intervention in the fighting ‘upset’ the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia, as Middle East Eye was the first to report.
On Monday, the White House said that Trump was ‘caught off guard’ by Israel’s bombing.
Barrack is spearheading the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. He has been a vocal supporter of efforts by Gulf states to invest in the war-torn country. He has generally walked a tightrope between concerns for minorities in Syria and calls for the central government in Damascus to assert its authority.
Barrack is trying to push the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate into the Syrian army as the US looks to continue reducing its military presence in northeast Syria.
Barrack has been well received in Turkey. US support for the SDF has been a long-running sore point in the Nato allies ties.
Barrack’s messaging on Sharaa
In a press conference in Beirut on Monday Barrack was asked about Israeli intervention, which he said ‘came at a very bad time’ and created ‘another very confusing chapter’ for Syria.
Current and former Arab, Israeli, and US officials told MEE that Israel’s strikes and efforts to position itself as a ‘defender’ of the Druze suggested it was bent on carving out a zone of influence in Syria that conflicts directly with the vision of a unitary post-war Syria put forward by Barrack and the Trump administration.