Damascus: Efforts to Foil the Zionist 'Chess Strategy' in Suwayda

Israel once again emerges as a key factor in the possibility of clashes between Damascus and Suwayda; observers believe that Tel Aviv has succeeded in misleading both the Syrian government and the people of Suwayda into believing that “the other side is on the verge of launching a major, decisive, and unprecedented attack,” as part of a plan by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to replicate the bloody events that took place in the province in July 2025. Amid these developments, questions are being raised, including: Will Israel succeed once again in igniting a war between the government and the “National Guard”? Will Damascus manage to thwart its plan? According to Syrian strategic security and military expert Ismat al-Abssi, the Syrian government is fully aware of Israel’s conspiracies.

Political analyst Rami Nakhlah, a native of Suwayda province who is working on mediation between the government and the Druze to resolve the ongoing crisis in the province stemming from the 2025 events, explained the nature of Israel’s role since the new government came to power about two years ago. He pointed out that there is a strategy known in chess as “zugzwang,” which translates to “compulsion to move.” This strategy involves arranging a player’s pieces in such a way that the opponent has no move that does not harm themselves. The cruelty of this strategy lies in the fact that the player is forced to proceed with moves they know with certainty will lead to their destruction.

Nakhlah told Asharq Al-Awsat that since the new government came to power in Damascus, Israel has been employing this strategy against Syria. Although Damascus was slow to understand the game, it grasped its nature after the bloody “Black July” events and realized that there is a fundamental difference between politics and chess. In politics, you are not obliged to move your piece in every round. He noted that “this inaction or refusal to respond is what Damascus is heavily criticized for in the media, although in my view, it is the wisest option under current circumstances.”

The chess pieces that Israel can move range from a massive army to certain “pawns” in Suwayda, up to ministers in decision-making centers in Washington, according to Nakhlah, who noted that Israel is exerting intense pressure and has cleverly rearranged the board, potentially forcing Damascus again to make a move that would deeply harm it.

Undoubtedly, what serves Israel’s interests at this stage—from electoral gains to weakening Damascus internationally, to rallying around Sheikh al-Aql (wise man) Hikmat al-Hajri, who leads the “National Guard,” and portraying Israel once again as the protector of the Druze—is, in Nakhlah’s view, a new civil war that Tel Aviv envisions as massacres committed by “extremist Islam” against a religious minority.