Syria, Jordan, US agree on 7-step roadmap to solve crisis in Suwayda

ISTANBUL

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani announced a seven-step roadmap on Tuesday to resolve the crisis in the southern city of Suwayda, following talks in Damascus with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, and US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack.

Addressing a press conference, Shaibani said the plan seeks to ensure uninterrupted humanitarian and medical aid to Suwayda, restore essential services to enable a return to normal life, and deploy local security forces to secure roads and facilitate movement.

The plan also aims to compensate those affected and allow the return of displaced persons, clarify the fate of the missing, launch a reconciliation process that includes all communities in the province and hold accountable “all those whose hands are stained with assaults on civilians and their property,” he added.

Safadi, for his part, said the parties agreed on a Syrian-Jordanian-American plan “to overcome the events in Suwayda under the framework of Syria’s unity and stability.”

“We want Syria to stabilize, recover and rebuild after years of destruction and suffering, and to start practical steps toward a brighter future for all Syrians,” he added.

The top Jordanian diplomat stressed the need to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable and deliver humanitarian assistance.

“Security in southern Syria is an extension of Jordan’s security and essential for our stability,” he said.

The US envoy said he came to Syria “as a representative of the President of the United States and the Secretary of State in a difficult moment in the region and the world.”

He described Syria as “a country different from America, and an ancient civilization with a young new hopeful prosperous government.”

Barrack said confidence-building “takes inches, centimeters and decades to build and can be lost in an instant.”

“We are going to hit speed bumps or we are going to have bus stops along the way,” he added.

Tuesday’s discussions build on earlier rounds hosted by Amman in July and August that focused on consolidating a ceasefire in Suwayda and finding a resolution to the conflict there.

Suwayda has observed a ceasefire since July 19 following a week of armed clashes between Druze groups and Bedouin tribes and Israeli military attacks.