Flashpoint Suwayda: What the Druze Uprising Reveals About Syria’s Future

LA Times Middle East bureau chief Nabih Bulos and QI experts share insights from their recent trips to Syria.

Suwayda has become one of Syria’s most volatile flashpoints. Long seen as a Druze stronghold that remained on the margins of the civil war, the governorate has recently seen fierce clashes involving competing Druze militias, security forces of the new government in Damascus, and Bedouin tribesmen. The turmoil has also drawn in Israel, which, while pursuing its own interests, has cast itself as a defender of the Druze and bombed Syria’s defense ministry in Damascus in mid-July.

How does the new Syrian leadership and its armed cadres view the country’s minorities? What do the clashes in Suwayda reveal about the relationship between Bedouin tribes and Damascus? How significant is Israel’s role? And what might Suwayda’s unrest, along with earlier violence along the Alawite coast, portend for a potential deal between the Kurdish northeast and the central government, or for the larger struggle between centralization and federalism?
August 2025

28
10:00 AM ET
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Join us for a timely and important discussion with:

Nabih Bulos

Nabih Bulos is the Middle East bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. Since 2012, he has covered the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” revolution as well as the Islamic State’s resurgence and the campaign to defeat it. His work has taken him to Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Ukraine as well as on the migrant trail through the Balkans and northern Europe.

Steven Simon

Steven Simon is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute and distinguished fellow and visiting professor at Dartmouth College. From 2011-2012, he served on the National Security Council staff as senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs. He also worked on the NSC staff,1994 – 1999, on counterterrorism and Middle East security policy.

Adam Weinstein (Moderator)

Adam Weinstein is deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Quincy Institute. He previously worked for KPMG’s international trade practice. Adam’s current research focuses on security, trade, and rule of law in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East. He has conducted extensive research travel in Pakistan, Iraq, and the greater Middle East. 
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