In the course of his Dec. 26 press conference with national and international press, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned about the danger of Syria disintegrating.
“The disintegration of Syria must not be allowed,” he said. According to RT, Lavrov “urged Israel, which has established a so-called ‘buffer zone’ in internationally recognized Syrian territory, ‘to understand its responsibility in these collective [stabilization] efforts and refrain from ensuring its security at the expense of others.’”
The Israeli government just ordered the IDF to fortify that buffer zone with “temporary” army posts.
The danger of sectarian violence is also growing in Syria. Al Jazeera reported that 14 police of the new regimes were killed in an “ambush” by forces reportedly loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in the Tartus region. Interior Minister Mohammed Abdul Rahman said on Dec. 26 that the government would crack down on “anyone who dares to undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens.” According to Al Jazeera, “the attack came as protests took place in several cities after a video showing the vandalizing of an Alawite shrine in the city of Aleppo circulated online on Wednesday [Dec. 25]…. The Interior Ministry said on its official Telegram account that the video, which showed armed men walking inside the shrine and posing near human bodies, dated back to the rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November.”
Be that as it may, Al Jazeera reported that there had been “violence in recent days aimed at members of the Alawite minority, a sect long seen as loyal to Assad…. The situation in Syria [is] extremely delicate now, with flashpoints over the last 48 hours particularly in the Alawite heartland of Latakia and Tartus, as well as Homs and Aleppo.”
