Syria: Emergency Briefing Following Israeli Airstrikes
This afternoon (17 July), the Security Council will hold an emergency briefing on the situation in Syria. The meeting was requested by Syria in a letter dated 16 July (S/2025/470). Algeria and Somalia supported the meeting request. Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) Mohamed Khaled Khiari is the anticipated briefer. Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Türkiye are expected to participate in the meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure.
Syria requested the meeting following a series of airstrikes launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on its territory, which it claimed resulted in the killing and injury of a number of civilians and military personnel. Since 14 July, the IDF has conducted several airstrikes against Syrian military forces in the southern governorates of Daraa and Suweida. On 16 July, heavy IDF airstrikes hit the headquarters of the Syrian Ministry of Defence and there were reports of a strike near the presidential palace in Damascus.
The strikes come against the backdrop of intense clashes in Suweida—a Druze majority area—which reportedly started on 13 July between Sunni Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias. On 14 July, the Syrian interim authorities deployed security forces to quell the violence, but intensified fighting then erupted between the security forces and Druze militias. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz have claimed that IDF strikes on Syrian interim forces were necessary to prevent further harm to the Druze minority in Syria and to ensure the demilitarisation of the area adjacent to Israel’s border with Syria. Several thousand Druze also live in Israel and in the Israeli-occupied Golan.
This is the second time this year that Israel has attacked Syria—including in the vicinity of the presidential palace in Damascus—in response to violence against the Druze minority. At the beginning of May, clashes between Druze militias and Syria’s security forces in the suburbs of Damascus and in Suweida reportedly killed more than 100 people, raising tensions and concerns of sectarian violence against the minority.
The exact number of casualties from the latest escalation is currently unclear. In a 17 July statement, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen noted that the escalation has “claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, as well as interim authority forces and local armed groups, and injured and displaced many more”. He condemned all acts of violence against civilians and expressed deep concern about “serious allegations of extrajudicial executions and arbitrary killings”. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based human rights monitoring organisation, has reported that over 370 persons have been killed.
In its letter to the Council, Syria strongly condemned Israel’s actions, stressing that they constitute a serious threat to international peace and security and the unity and territorial integrity of Syria, and categorically rejected any Israeli justifications for the strikes. It further called on the Security Council and the UN to condemn the attacks, pursue efforts to de-escalate the situation, and compel Israel to withdraw from Syrian territory, including ending its occupation of the Syrian Golan.
Late on 16 July, the Syrian interim authorities reportedly agreed to a ceasefire with the Druze religious leaders and began to withdraw their armed forces from Suweida City. The agreement reportedly includes a mutual commitment to cease hostilities, the full integration of Suweida into the Syrian state, and the establishment of a joint committee to monitor the implementation of the agreement’s terms. The agreement, however, has reportedly been rejected by some factions of Syria’s Druze community. In a 17 July statement, Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa stressed that the Druze are an “integral part” of the country and announced the decision to entrust local factions and Druze religious leaders with maintaining security in Suweida.
At today’s briefing, Khiari is expected to echo the 16 July statement by Secretary-General António Guterres, in which he condemned all violence against civilians and took note of a statement by Syria’s presidency that condemned the violations and committed to ensuring accountability. In line with the Secretary-General’s statement, he may further condemn Israel’s “escalatory airstrikes” and “reports of the IDF’s redeployment of forces in the Golan” and call for an immediate cessation of violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and respect for the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement. Several Council members are also likely to convey similar messages and criticise Israeli strikes on Syrian interim government buildings and forces, stressing that such attacks pose a threat to the country’s stability during a period of transition.
Khiari and several speakers may further urge the Syrian parties to fully adhere to the recently announced ceasefire agreement and to commit to de-escalation and dialogue. Members will be interested in hearing whether the ceasefire has been upheld by the parties or if clashes have continued.
The US is likely to refer to its diplomatic efforts to reach the ceasefire agreement, as conveyed in a 16 July statement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and reiterate its call for the Syrian interim authorities to “withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate”.
Council members are also likely to draw parallels between the latest violence and clashes in early April targeting the Druze minority. They may also recall the mass killings of the Alawite minority, which took place in Latakia and Tartous from 7 to 9 March and, according to a Reuters investigation, left over 1500 Alawites dead. An official fact-finding committee decreed by Sharaa to investigate the mass violence was expected to convey its findings to the president by 10 July.
Today, several Council members are expected to call on the Syrian interim authorities to protect all Syrians, regardless of ethnicity or religion, and demand that steps be taken to ensure accountability for all perpetrators of violence. Some members may note that they are awaiting the results of the fact-finding committee’s investigations and call for the findings to be made public.
Council members are likely to cite the Security Council’s 14 March presidential statement, which was adopted in the wake of the 7-9 March escalation in Latakia and Tartous, and emphasise the importance of inclusive, transparent justice processes. Furthermore, some Council members may stress the need for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of armed groups into national security forces and for improved efforts towards security sector reform, to decrease future risks of further violence. Council members are likely to highlight that such efforts are a prerequisite to achieving sustainable peace in Syria, and reiterate their call for an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process which is based on the key principles of resolution 2254 of 18 December 2015, which focused on a political solution to the Syrian crisis.
