Sweida receives first aid convoy directly from Damascus after US-brokered deal

Syrian authorities clear protesters blocking main road between capital and southern province as two-month stand-off ends

A UN aid convoy passes a Syrian government checkpoint en route to Sweida city in August. The latest supplies include wheat, peanut butter and fuel. AP

Syria's southern city of Sweida on Thursday received aid directly from Damascus, after a US-brokered deal to end a two-month stand-off between government forces and Druze militias.

Access to the main city in the Druze-majority province was cut off when the government sent security forces to Sweida to quell clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes in July.

A convoy of aid lorries drove along the main road between Damascus and Sweida after the authorities cleared protesters who had blocked the route to denounce the agreement signed on Tuesday between the Syrian government, the US and Jordan. The protesters were mostly Sunnis of Bedouin origin who had been uprooted from Sweida as a result of the fighting.

Securing the road is one of the terms of the agreement, which commits the Syrian authorities to allow a constant flow of aid into Sweida and the free movement of people and goods. "From now on, all the aid will go through the Sweida-Damascus road," a Syrian Red Crescent official told The National.

About three dozen aid convoys that reached Sweida previously were mostly sent along an alternative route through neighbouring Deraa province. Thursday's convoy carried wheat, peanut butter and fuel, the official added.

The authorities in Damascus said they sent security forces to Sweida to contain the clashes between Druze fighters and armed Bedouins. Jordan, whose population includes tribes with connections to south Syria, was affected by the violence across the border.

Tuesday's deal calls for the integration of Sweida into the new Syrian state being established after the downfall of former president Bashar Al Assad in December. He was toppled by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham rebel group, led by Ahmad Al Shara, who is now Syria's President.

Hikmat Al Hijri, the most senior Druze spiritual leader in Syria, has resisted the government's attempts to impose control over the province and appoint its own officials. He said the US-brokered deal failed to hold the government accountable for hundreds of deaths during the violence in Sweida.

The US-brokered agreement also commits the Syrian government to work on de-escalation with Israel, which sent its troops across the border into southern Syria and has carried out bombing raids across the country since Mr Al Assad was overthrown.

Mr Al Shara told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that talks with Israel to reach a security pact could yield results in the coming days. Axios reported this week that Israel presented Syria with proposals for demilitarised zones south of Damascus, as part of security talks between the two sides, which Washington is also brokering.

A source in Jordan said any deal between Syria and Israel would not affect front lines between the government forces and the Druze, because security troops surrounding Sweida "do not have much heavy weaponry". "They rely on quick mobility and support from the local tribes," the source added.