Hikmat al-Hajari, the spiritual leader of Syria's Druze community, rejected claims that the Druze had reached any deal with the country's new leadership and described the Damascus government as extremist. In remarks reported by Rudaw, he said there was no agreement or understanding with the transitional authorities headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The comments came at a sensitive moment for Syria's post-Assad political transition. After a rapid offensive led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Assad government collapsed and Sharaa was appointed interim president. The new authorities then moved quickly to reshape the state, dissolving parliament, annulling the constitution and setting out a five-year transitional framework. Against that backdrop, the Druze were being pulled into a national debate over the future of the state's institutions, centralization and armed power.
Al-Hajari's refusal to recognize the new leadership followed reports that Damascus had struck an administrative and security arrangement for Suwayda province. Rudaw said those reports suggested security forces linked to the new authorities might enter the Druze-majority area. Al-Hajari rejected that account and insisted the community was not bound by such an arrangement.
The report also captured the wider mistrust between the Druze and the new order in Damascus. Bahaa al-Jamal, described as the commander of the Druze operations in Suwayda, said the community did not recognize Sharaa as president and would recognize a president only after fair elections. He also said the Druze would reject any political or legal arrangement that did not go through their spiritual leader.
Those remarks are important because they show that the dispute is not simply about personalities. It is about the shape of the Syrian state itself. The supplied evidence says Druze figures favored a secular or decentralized system and resisted disbanding their armed factions. That position puts them at odds with a central government that is trying to assert authority after years of civil war.
The violence on Syria's coast sharpened those concerns. Rudaw said Alawite-majority areas had seen deadly clashes after loyalists of the ousted Assad government attacked security forces, and that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later put the death toll at around 1,500, mostly civilians. Al-Jamal condemned the killings and warned that the Druze were prepared to defend themselves if attacked, but would not initiate conflict.
The article also notes that Israel has pledged to protect the Druze from attack in southern Syria, which further complicates the scene. Regional guarantees, internal militia control and accusations of extremism all point to a fragile transition with no settled formula for minority inclusion.
The core confirmed facts are straightforward: al-Hajari denied any deal with Damascus, denounced the new leadership as extremist and rejected leniency toward it. Everything else in the report shows why that statement matters. Syria's transitional government is trying to consolidate power, while Druze leaders are signaling that cooperation will not come without decentralization, security guarantees and a political process they trust.
