Syria, US, Jordan back pact to stabilize Sweida, launching transitional phase

Author: Published: September 18, 2025

Damascus said the agreement includes an understanding with Washington to seek security arrangements with Israel regarding southern Syria.

Members of Syrian security forces ride on a back of a truck after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025.
Members of Syrian security forces ride on a back of a truck after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025.
(photo credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI)
BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Updated: 
Syria has sought to push forward a roadmap for resolving what it calls the “Crisis in Sweida and Stabilizing Southern Syria.”

The deal follows months of clashes between the Druze minority in Syria and other groups, primarily Bedouin tribesmen. This boiled over in July, and the government was accused of not doing enough to defend the Druze.
Israel has vowed to defend the Druze in Suweida in southern Syria, even bombing Damascus as a warning to deter attacks on the group, and US members of Congress and others have also expressed concern.
The full text includes many sections. It says, among other things, that “Syria’s stability, security, and prosperity are a cornerstone of regional stability. The Syrian Arab Republic, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the United States of America affirm their commitment to work together in genuine partnership to help Syria build a future of peace and stability for all its people.”

 

People stand next to a destroyed tank turret, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 25, 2025. (credit: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)
People stand next to a destroyed tank turret, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria July 25, 2025. (credit: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)
Suweida is in southern Syria near the Jordanian border.
Although Israel backs the Druze, the area is not actually next to the Golan. Instead, a mostly Sunni Arab area called Dara’a is near the Golan. As such, it is logistically hard for Israel to back the Druze except with air power.
The new plan says that Jordan, the US, and Syria “will support efforts to rebuild Syria on foundations that preserve its security, stability, unity, and sovereignty, and that meet the aspirations of all Syrians and protect their rights.”

Furthermore, “Jordan and the United States will support the Syrian government in overcoming the challenges that hinder this process, including in the fields of reconstruction, institution-building, combating terrorism and extremism, ending societal disputes, and achieving national reconciliation.”

Roadmap calls for withdrawing civilian fighters

The new roadmap also says that “the Syrian government calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic to conduct an investigation into the regrettable occurrences Sweida governorate has witnessed recently, and the Syrian government is committed to holding all perpetrators of violations accountable, according to the Syrian law.”

Israel is likely not included because Israel and Syria do not have normalized ties.

“Jordan, in coordination with the Syrian Arab Republic, will invite a delegation representing the local communities in Sweida (Druze, Christians, and Sunnis), and another delegation of representatives of the Bedouin tribes in Sweida governorate to meetings to help achieve reconciliation,” the plan says.
The above paragraph appears to be the one mention of the Druze by name in the document.
A local police force from all the communities will be formed, the document says. “In coordination with the local community in Sweida, a provincial council representing all components of the local community in Sweida will be formed.”

“The council will be tasked with interacting with the Syrian government and leading efforts to achieve national reconciliation,” the plan adds.

US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack praised Syria for its work on the plan. “The building blocks of trust, of confidence, of understanding, they take inches, centimeters, and decades to build, and can be lost in an instant,” Barrack said.

“What we are seeing today is an architecture, a roadmap, a GPS to build that highway for generations.” The US is dedicated to helping Syria rebuild, he noted.

Over 1,000 housing units approved in Judea and Samaria

Author: Published: September 18, 2025

Hundreds of housing units and a new industrial zone in settlements were approved, and the Supreme Planning Council has advanced over 25,000 units since the start of the year.

Hezki Baruch

Published: 

 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich

Finance Minister Bezalel SmotrichYonatan Sindel/Flash90

The Supreme Planning Council convened yesterday (Wednesday) and approved hundreds of housing units for purchase by deposit in Gush Etzion, the Mount Hebron area, and Samaria.

The communities where approvals were granted are:

Elaza – 66 units finalized, Ma’ale Amos – 371 units authorized for deposit, Ariel – 280 units authorized for deposit, Gitit – 281 units authorized for deposit, Avigail – 278 units authorized for deposit, and a new industrial zone in Omerim that was authorized for deposit.

Over the past year, the Supreme Planning Council has been meeting monthly, according to the region’s needs, approving tens of thousands of housing units.

Peace Now has published a report decrying the ‘sudden surge in construction planning in the settlements.”

In another report this week, they wrote that since November 2024, the Supreme Planning Council has been holding weekly discussions to advance housing units in ‘the settlements.’ “The shift to approving plans on a weekly basis not only normalizes construction in the territories but also intensifies it. Since the beginning of 2025, together with the plans scheduled for approval this week, the Supreme Planning Council has advanced 25,129 housing units, an all-time record.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Arutz Sheva – Israel National News, “We will continue strengthening the settlement enterprise for Israel’s security and to bolster our sovereignty over the homeland’s territories. What we are doing is Zionism.”

Saudi Arabia signs mutual defense pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan

Author: Published: September 18, 2025

Move seen as a signal to Israel in wake of attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders in Qatar, which caused jitters throughout the Arab world

By AP and ToI StaffToday, 10:24 am
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, left, embraces Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a joint defense pact in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 17, 2025. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, left, embraces Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a joint defense pact in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 17, 2025. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defense pact that regards any attack on either nation as an attack on both in the wake of Israel’s strike on leaders of the Hamas terror group in Qatar.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long had close economic, religious and security ties to Pakistan, including reportedly providing funding for Islamabad’s nuclear weapons program as it developed. Analysts — and Pakistani diplomats in at least one case — have suggested over the years that the kingdom could be included under Islamabad’s nuclear umbrella, particularly as tensions have risen over Iran’s atomic program.

But the timing of the pact appeared to be a signal to Israel, which is widely acknowledged to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state and has been fighting a multifront war in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.

Israel did not immediately acknowledge the pact, which was the first firm defense decision made by a Gulf Arab country since the Qatar attack last week. The United States, which has long been the security guarantor for the Gulf states, also did not immediately acknowledge the agreement.

Israel’s strike in Qatar last week targeted a meeting of Hamas’s top leadership, but while five members of the terror group were confirmed to have been killed in the attack, Israel has increasingly come to believe at least some of the intended targets were not. A member of Qatar’s security forces was also killed.

Following the attack, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation held a joint session, demanded a review of Israel ties, and urged member states to coordinate steps to suspend Israel from the United Nations.

This handout picture released by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) shows, (L-R) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jassim al-Budaiwi, Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Oman’s Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs Shihab bin Tarik Al Said, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bahrain’s King’s Personal Representative Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and the UAE’s Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, posing for a group picture during the 2025 Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. (Saudi Press Agency / AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed the pact on Wednesday with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

While not specifically discussing the bomb, the agreement states “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” according to statements issued by both Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

“This agreement… aims to develop aspects of defense cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” the statement said.

A long defense relationship

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a defense relationship stretching back decades, in part due to Islamabad’s willingness to defend the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina in the kingdom. Pakistani troops first traveled to Saudi Arabia in the late 1960s over concerns about Egypt’s war in Yemen at the time. Those ties increased after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the kingdom’s fears of a confrontation with Tehran.

Pakistan developed its nuclear weapons program to counter India’s atomic bombs. The two countries have fought multiple wars against each other and again came close to open warfare after an attack on tourists in April in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

On Thursday, India’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged the pact being signed and said it “will study the implications of this development for our national security as well as for regional and global stability.” Saudi Arabia also maintains close ties to India.

Rana Sanaullah (3R), an adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister walks alongside Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki (2L), Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Pakistan during a ceremony to handover relief aid for flood victims donated by the Saudi government, in Islamabad in August 20, 2025. (Farooq NAEEM / AFP)

Neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia responded to questions from The Associated Press on Thursday on whether the pact extended to Islamabad’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Saudi Arabia has sought US assistance to advance a civilian nuclear power program, in part with what had been a proposed diplomatic recognition deal with Israel prior to the 2023 Hamas attack. That could allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium in the kingdom — something that worries nonproliferation experts as spinning centrifuges opens the door to a possible weapons program.

Prince Mohammed has said the kingdom would pursue a nuclear weapon if Iran had one. It is already believed to have a domestic ballistic missile program, which can be a delivery system for a nuclear weapon. However, Saudi Arabia is a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and isn’t known to have moved toward acquiring the bomb through its own work.

Before the defense pact was signed, Iran dispatched Ali Larijani, a senior political figure who now serves as the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, to visit Saudi Arabia. That may have seen the kingdom acknowledge the pact to Tehran, with which it has had a Chinese-mediated détente since 2023.

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