BEIRUT— Given the March horrific massacres on the Syrian coast and recently in Suwayda has it become legitimate to ask that partition is becoming a reality in Syria? The mosaic of partition is leading to the construction of de facto authorities that are separate and isolated from each other. 

The northeast is in the hands of the SDF; Suwayda is in the hands of the Druze; the coast demands international protection; while the center and peripheries are controlled by the HTS group. Each region has its own political project and sectarian references.

The partition project in Syria is not merely a conspiracy theory; it is a cumulative process that is gradually crystallizing unless it is resisted by national forces and unifying and wise spiritual leaders. 

However, if the state of division and sectarian rhetoric continues, this painful reality will turn into an inevitable fate that affects not only Syrians but the entire people of the region.

Today, Syrians, regardless of their backgrounds and sectarian and regional affiliations, are more in need of awareness of the gravity of the moment, just as they were during the French Mandate in the 1920s.

At that time, the French High Commissioner sought to divide Syria into four sectarian cantons with various privileges. However, the Syrians refused and revolted under the leadership of the Druze leader Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, Saleh al-Ali, Ibrahim Hanano, and other exceptional and distinguished leaders.

The calls for partition, self-administration, international protection, and other slogans (engineered in the laboratories of the Israeli Mossad) aim at annihilating the single, unified Syrian entity.

Obviously, the policies pursued by the self-appointed president, al-Julani (currently known as Ahmed al-Sharaa) demonstrate a contradiction between rhetoric and practice as it turns a blind eye to the escalation of hate speech and allows its media, security, and even military arms to further perpetuate sectarian division.

Indeed, al-Julani’s failure to put an end to the prevailing security chaos in the country makes it appear as if he is fueling division rather than combating it, as he claims.

Undoubtedly, the primary and ultimate beneficiary is the Israeli enemy, as it has unfortunately succeeded in dismantling the only Arab state that supported the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements. 

Its recent intervention under the pretext of “defending the Druze” is a prelude to the formation of a demilitarized security belt on the borders of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel has long employed this fabricated pretext of “protecting minorities” to portray itself as their protector, not to mention its regional conflict between it and Türkiye.

Despite all the worrying indicators and despite all the abhorrent sectarian mobilization and incitement that sow discord and hatred among the components of Syrian society, Syrians, especially the elites, remain unanimous in their rejection of partition. 

Just as the failure of the French partition project in the 1920s demonstrates, such maps may be drawn on paper, but they will collapse in the face of the resilience and awareness of societies.

12 years ago, the martyred Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned that if Syria were lost, Palestine would be lost and called for combating the project to partition Syria. He said: “Be wary, oh Lebanese people, and all the peoples […] there is a clear experience before you, so why are you blind to it? […] What future does Syria have in light of this takfiri mindset and these groups? What future does Lebanon have? What future does Palestine have? What future does the peoples of the region have? For God’s sake, let’s speak logically. Put the sectarian and religious issue aside, for this is a real danger! We are not approaching the issue from a Shiite and Sunni perspective, as some are trying to accuse us. Rather, we are approaching the issue from the perspective that we see all Muslims and Christians threatened by this mindset, this movement, this ideology, and this takfiri project—funded and supported by the U.S.—that is creeping into the region because this is what remains for the U.S. to destroy the region and reassert its hegemony over it, in the face of the awakenings of the peoples, the uprisings of the peoples, and the wills of the peoples.”

He adds, “If the takfiri current takes control, the future of Syria, Lebanon, and the region will be a very harsh and dark future […]  We all know that the U.S. project in the region is entirely an Israeli project because Syria is clearly the backbone of the resistance and the support of the resistance […] The fool is the one who stands and watches death, the siege, and the conspiracy creeping towards him without lifting a finger. I am the wise and responsible one who acts with full responsibility. Beware, brothers and sisters, because if Syria falls into the hands of the Americans, Israelis, Takfiris, and the U.S. tools in the region who call themselves regional states, the resistance will be besieged and Israel will re-invade Lebanon to impose its conditions on Lebanon and to revive its ambitions and projects once again, and Lebanon will be brought back into the Israeli era. If Syria falls, Palestine will be lost, the resistance in Palestine will be lost, and Gaza, the West Bank, and holy Jerusalem will be lost. If Syria falls into the hands of America, Israel, and the Takfiris, the peoples of our region and the countries of our region will face a harsh, bad, and dark era, and this is our diagnosis.”