Syria, US and Jordan say they will work toward a lasting truce in wake of Syrian sectarian clashes

BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian, U.S. and Jordanian officials said Tuesday they would work together toward a permanent ceasefire in a southern Syrian region wracked by deadly sectarian clashes last month that threatened the country’s fragile transition in the wake of its yearslong civil war.

The announcement came after three-way talks, held in the Jordanian capital of Amman, seeking ways to support post-war reconstruction efforts of Syria’s new authorities.

The discussions between U.S. special envoy Tom Barrack and Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers, Asaad al-Shibani and Ayman Safadi, were the second such meeting, following talks held in July.

The first round focused on a ceasefire that ended days of clashes in the southern Sweida province between government forces and local Bedouin tribesmen on one side, and fighters from the country’s Druze minority on the other.

Hundreds were killed, including many civilians.

Since Islamist-led insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December, the new government they put in place in Damascus has struggled to maintain stability and heal the wounds of the nearly 14-year civil war.

Though the fighting in Sweida has largely ended, tensions remain and minority communities have grown increasingly wary of the new authorities in the capital of Damascus, calling for a decentralized government.

A joint statement issued after Tuesday’s Amman talks reaffirmed that Sweida, “with all its local communities, is an integral part” of Syria and that the safety of its communities must be safeguarded and “preserved in the process of rebuilding a new Syria.”

It backed efforts to investigate “crimes and violations” committed in Sweida – including allegations that government fighters executed Druze civilians. Videos of such killings have caused an outcry, including recent footage of what appears to be the killing of a medic by men in military uniform in a Sweida hospital.

Tensions have also risen between the central government in Damascus and the U.S.-allied and Kurdish-led forces that control northeastern Syria. Implementation of an agreement reached in March to merge the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the Syrian army, made up of mostly former rebels and insurgents, has stalled, and there have been scattered outbreaks of violence between the two sides.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported on Tuesday that SDF fighters had infiltrated an area controlled by the Syrian army east of the city of Aleppo, leading to clashes that killed a Syrian soldier.

Syria also faces major economic and social challenges. In 2017, the United Nations estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion to rebuild Syria while some experts now say that figure is more likely to be at least $400 billion.

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others have in recent months pledged investments worth billions of dollars to rebuild Syria’s infrastructure.

Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir met with his Iraqi counterpart, Hayan Abdel-Ghani, in Iraq where they discussed the possibility of reactivating an oil pipeline between the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and Syria’s coastal town of Baniyas, which is home to one of the country’s two oil refineries.

SANA quoted al-Bashir as saying that Syria imports 3 million barrels of oil a month, in addition to its own production, to cover local consumption.

The report cited Abdel-Ghani as saying the two countries would have to look into what it would take to reactivate the pipeline, which suffered wide damage during wars in both countries – or build a new one.

Before the war broke out in 2011, the oil sector was a pillar of Syria’s economy, with the country producing about 380,000 barrels a day, and exports – mostly to Europe – bringing in more than $3 billion in 2010. Since then, the sector has suffered widely.