Suwayda’s Crisis:
Responsibility, Trust, and the Road Ahead
Responsibility, Trust, and the Road Ahead
Zedoun Al Zoubi and Ahed Mrad join an episode of “Syria Today” TV program titled ( السويداء.. أزمة مستعصية أم هناك طرق للحل؟ ). Premiered 27 September 2025 on Syria TV, the Arabic-language episode was also released on YouTube and social media.
The episode centers on Zedoun’s reading of Suwayda’s crisis as a test of state responsibility, social solidarity, and Syria’s capacity to manage diversity without resorting to coercion or denial. He rejects framing the situation as a narrow security incident or a purely humanitarian emergency, arguing instead that it reflects deeper failures in governance, accountability, and trust between the state, society, and local communities.
Zedoun cautions against simplifying the crisis into a binary confrontation. He emphasizes that protecting civilians, rejecting collective blame, and avoiding moral hierarchies of suffering are essential to prevent further escalation. Calls for separation or withdrawal from the national framework, in his view, are not ideological projects but fear-driven reactions to prolonged insecurity and abandonment. Addressing those fears requires reassurance through concrete actions, not rhetoric.
He outlines a sequence of confidence-building measures that must precede any meaningful political process: ending incitement, ensuring access to basic services, releasing detainees and abductees, enabling the return of displaced communities, and safeguarding civilians from reprisals. These steps, he argues, are practical obligations of the state, not concessions.
Looking beyond the immediate crisis, Zedoun frames Suwayda as a warning for Syria as a whole. Sustainable stability, he contends, depends on inclusive dialogue, empowered local governance, and meaningful decentralization that allows communities to participate in decision-making while remaining connected to the national framework. Without this shift, Suwayda risks becoming a symbol of unresolved injustice rather than a pathway toward rebuilding trust.
27 September 2025
Episode Title: السويداء.. أزمة مستعصية أم هناك طرق للحل؟
Channel: Syria TV
Program: Syria Today
Language: Arabic
Header Photo
Syrian security forces stand by as a United Nations convoy evacuating families from Sweida moves through the buffer zone in Busra al-Harir in Syria's southern Daraa province on July 22, 2025. Photo © Bakr ALKASEM / AFP via Getty Images. Link >