US envoy says there’s ‘no Plan B’ to working with Syria’s current gov’t, criticizes Israeli strikes

Washington sees no alternative to continuing to work together with the Syrian government that is dominated by former members of Islamist terror groups, Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and Lebanon, said in Beirut on Monday.

Speaking with the Associated Press, he said there was “no Plan B” to working with President Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known and wanted as Mohammed al-Jolani, in an effort to restore stability in Syria.

Barrack also doubled down on U.S. criticism of Israel’s strikes in southern Syria, which targeted government troops in order to stop attacks on the majority-Druze province of Suwayda (Suweida).

After over a week of fighting that saw the deaths of over 1,100 people, including hundreds of Druze civilians who were executed by government-affiliated troops, the ceasefire mediated by the U.S. and declared last weekend appeared to be holding.

Regarding Israel’s strikes, Barrack said that “The U.S. was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the U.S.’s responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

However, he added that the Israeli intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”

Last week, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce had said that the U.S. didn’t support the strikes, adding, “We’ve been very clear about our displeasure, certainly that the president has, and we’ve worked very quickly to have it stopped.”

According to AP, the Israeli strikes drew complaints to the White House by Barrack, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which have vocally supported al-Sharaa’s new regime.

Barrack also appeared to suggest that Israel’s goal is to keep Syria fragmented, which would directly contravene the U.S. policies in the country.

“Strong nation states are a threat – especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel,” he said. But in Syria, he said, “I think all of the minority communities are smart enough to say, we’re better off together, centralized.”

Israeli officials have not pushed back publicly on the U.S. criticism. However, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on 𝕏 that "Those who criticize the attacks are not well-versed in the facts," without naming who he meant.

"Israel's attacks on regime targets in Suweida and Damascus were the only way to stop the massacre of Druze in Syria, the brothers of our Druze brothers in Israel," he wrote.

"The government's policy in Syria, including the presence of the IDF in Hermon and the security zone and the protection of the Druze, is correct and responsible, reflecting strength and mutual responsibility.

Barrack called the “killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” intolerable, but added “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Nevertheless, he also said at a later news conference that “there is a Syrian government in place that must be held accountable and bear its responsibilities.”

Despite ostensibly being sent to restore order in Suwayda, government troops were reported to have joined the fighting on the side of the Bedouin tribesmen and went on to commit atrocities against Druze civilians.

Meanwhile, the tension on the ground in southern Syria is slowly dissipating as the ceasefire continues to hold.

Reuters reported on Monday that hundreds of Bedouin civilians are being evacuated from the majority-Druze town of Suwayda after Druze militias had attacked Bedouin neighborhoods and villages in the area during the fighting.

While most reports of atrocities indicated that the perpetrators were either Bedouin tribesmen or government-affiliated Islamist gunmen, Reuters quoted Bedouin civilians who claimed there had also been killings of civilians by Druze militias.

Around 1,500 Bedouin civilians are set to be evacuated from the area and will be received in temporary displacement camps in nearby majority-Sunni areas.

In the next step, Bedouins detained by Druze militias and the bodies of Bedouins killed in the fighting will be transferred.

According to the United Nations, at least 93,000 people, most of them Druze, were displaced by the fighting.