Assad is trying to create a Druze-Sunni conflict in Syria

The Syrian government of president Bashar Al Assad is trying to force the minorities to engage in the Syrian civil war against the mostly Sunni rebels. According to a report by Al Arabiya, it is providing members of the Lebanese Shiite militant group, Hezbollah, as well as Shiite fighters from Iraq with “forged” Syrian identity cards carrying Druze names.

The Druze are a minority in the Middle East and live primarily in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine ( present day Israel ) and the United States.

” Such action by the criminal Syrian regime could create a conflict between the Druze and the Sunni communities”, according to Ayman Maarouf an analyst in the Jabal Al Arab where most of the Druze in Syria live .

This development comes after the Syrian regime failed to involve the Druze community to fight against the rebels, according to Syrian observers .

Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011 against the Assad regime, Syria’s Druze community like most minority groups in the country tried to remain netral and did not voice their opposition to Assad, who is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Soueida the capital of the Druze stronghold of Jabal al Arab and which borders Jordan and Daraa has reportedly been used as a channel of entry into Daraa by Hezbollah and other Shiite and Assad forces to fight the rebels, according to the report

The Damascus regime has reportedly sent a number of Lebanese Druze figures to persuade the Druze community take part in the fight alongside Assad forces against the rebels but instead were instructed by their religious leaders to stay out of the conflict.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt , who heads up the Progressive Socialist Party has been calling on the Druze soldiers in the Syrian army to disobey orders to fire on civilians and called on the Druze community to join the rebels against the Syrian regime. But others like former minister Wiam Wahawb, a close ally of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime has been calling on the Druze to fight against the rebels.

In a statement issued last November , Jumblatt urged Syria’s “Druze community to join the Syrian rebels who are shedding their blood in heroic battles against oppression on a daily basis.”

“ Failure of the Druze to join the rebels does not fall in line with their heroic stances during the great Syrian Revolution that overthrew the French mandate,” Jumblatt stressed.