Eduardo González
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares expressed his concern on Monday over the religious clashes between the Druze minority and Syrian government forces and called on Israel to halt “the new occupation of the Golan Heights and the attacks on Syria.”
“I am following the violence in Syria with great concern,” Albares wrote on social media. “Its authorities must guarantee the protection of all religious and ethnic communities,” he continued. “Syria’s stability is key to peace in the Middle East. Spain is committed to its unity and territorial integrity,” he added.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100 Druze—a minority derived from Shia Islam rooted in Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights—were killed last week near Damascus and in southern Syria as a result of clashes between members of this ethnic group and militias affiliated with Syria’s new Islamist regime, led by jihadist Ahmad al-Sharaa.
In a second message, the minister warned that “the new occupation of the Golan Heights and the attacks on Syria only contribute to further destabilization of the region and hinder a peaceful and inclusive political transition.” “We urge the government of Israel to stop these actions,” he concluded. Israel has justified this offensive by the need to “prevent hostile forces from entering the Druze localities.”
