Syria's Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions. Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.

Syria's new government sent troops to quell fighting between the Druze religious minority and Sunni Muslim tribes. Then Israel intervened, bombing Damascus.

Israel and Syria agreed to a ceasefire after Israel intervened in fighting between Syrian government forces and rebel groups.

Barrack suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

Syria and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said on Friday. The deal was “embraced” by Turkey, Jordan and other neighboring countries, the ambassador, who also serves as the US special envoy to Syria, said in a post on X.

Syria’s security forces have begun deploying in the restive southern province of Suwayda, a Ministry of Interior spokesperson has said, where heavy fighting between Druze and Bedouin armed groups and government forces has left hundreds dead.

President Trump’s special envoy for Syria on Monday criticized Israeli strikes against the country last week as poorly timed and complicating efforts to stabilize the region, in an interview with The Associated Press.

An American citizen from Oklahoma was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed during the sectarian violence that flared in Syria last week.

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.S. envoy doubled down on Washington’s support for Syria’s new government, saying Monday there is “no Plan B” to working with it to unite the country still reeling from years of civil war and wracked by new sectarian violence.

The U.S. envoy to Syria announced on Friday that the country and Israel reached a ceasefire deal. “We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbors,

President Donald Trump was caught by surprise last week by Israeli actions in Gaza and Syria, and in both instances phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “rectify” the matter, according to the White House.

Syria should not be allowed back into the international community unless it is able to uphold protections for the Druze and its other minority groups, Israel has said.