Afrasianet - The Washington Post published a report by Karim Fahim and Zakaria Zakaria who questioned whether Syria would disintegrate amid resistance from minorities to the new government's attempt to take control of the country.

They said the puzzling violence in several parts of the country has fuelled minority demands for autonomy and autonomy, challenging the plans of President Ahmed al-Shara and the central government in Damascus. According to the report, prepared from the town of Arna in the Qatna area of the Damascus countryside, a wall of fear is rising in this scenic town located on the slopes of Jabal al-Sheikh.

Many residents of Arna Druze say  they are afraid to leave because of violence or discrimination against their minority in parts of Syria.

Many Druze residents say they fear leaving because of violence or discrimination targeting their minority in parts of Syria.

Residents of the town have shown no hesitation in allowing some outsiders in: Government forces are stationed at a checkpoint in the nearby town. In Arna and other areas inhabited by religious and ethnic minorities, the Islamist-led Syrian government is increasingly seen as a threat.

This sense of alienation represents a dangerous turn for the country's leaders, who came to power late last year after toppling Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship and vowed to unify the country.

Calls for autonomy have been launched in the Druze areas in the south, in the west, along the Mediterranean coast, where the ethnic minority lives, and in north-eastern Syria, where Syrian Kurds live who want to rule decentrally or simply leave them alone.

Residents say they still cherish their Syrian identity but are worried about the country's future.

Some local leaders have exploited current fears to lobby and demand openness and achieve dreams of independence.

Months after the rapid fall of the Assad regime, Nabih Kabul, a Druze resident of Arna, said that "there was a lot of hope for the new Syria" and "unfortunately, this period is worse than the one we were in."

The newspaper comments that these feelings of discontent are a challenge to the legitimate president's efforts to consolidate the authority of his new government and to proceed with a plan for national economic, political and societal recovery after years of terrible civil war.

Sharia calls for a central government from Damascus, similar to the government that existed in the country before the civil war broke out. His vision, he says, focuses on "development, construction, and the territorial integrity of Syria," a vision that has the support of many Syrians and has been embraced by outside backers, including influential Gulf states that have pledged to help and support Sharia.

Haider Haid, a fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House in London, says that in the Assad-era transition, the government wants "a strong central structure that enables it to make decisions quickly", but recent escalating incidents of violence threaten and even undermine those plans. "Every week, things get more worrying instead of getting better," Haid added.

The newspaper points out that the government has consistently blamed the remnants of the ousted Assad regime or foreign powers, especially Israel, for its military interventions in the country and its communication with the Druze.

These accusations have fueled political polarization that has increased the level of mistrust between some minorities and government forces.

"Fear is on both sides," said Diaa Khairbek, the mayor of Jableh on the Syrian coast, who is trying to calm tensions between government forces stationed there and Alawite residents who are still suffering from a massacre of their relatives and neighbours in March by government forces or allied fighters.

Syria saw another wave of unrest and killings last month in the city of Suwayda, a predominantly Druze city south of the capital, Damascus. More than 1,000 people have been killed in unrest and abuses, some of which have been carried out by state-allied fighters against Druze civilians. Weeks later, Sweida remains unstable and isolated, with government forces closing its entrances, while its residents struggle to get food and water, and hold occasional demonstrations.

During the recent protests, residents have provocatively demanded the right to self-determination and protection from Israel, which has launched airstrikes on Syrian forces during the battles in the city.

Thomas Barrack, President Donald Trump's envoy to Syria and a strong supporter of Sharia and his efforts to unify the country, acknowledged after the bloody events in Sweida that Syria may need to consider alternatives to a highly centralized state. "It's not federalism, it's something less, it allows everyone to maintain their unity, their culture, their language, and away from any Islamist threat," he told a group of journalists last month. "I think everyone is saying we need to find a way to be more rational," he added.

For his part, al-Shara ruled out the possibility of dividing Syria. In a speech broadcast by state media on Sunday, he said: "There are desires among some to divide Syria and try to establish local cantons internally, but logically, politically and rationally, this is impossible." He condemned the Israeli interventions in Sweida, saying they were "aimed at weakening the state." But he also acknowledged his government's role in isolating the city, stressing that perpetrators of abuses during the fighting would be punished.

Since taking power after Assad's fall, al-Sharia has struggled to convince skeptics of the sincerity of his pledges to protect minorities. His personal history, as a former fighter who led al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, has been a burden to him. Coupled with the behavior of extremist fighters ostensibly under his command, which are linked to an increasing series of abuses, compared to the Sharia government's foreign efforts that have attracted foreign investment, eased Syria's diplomatic isolation, and gotten rid of international sanctions on Assad.

"While it may help," Haid commented, Syria's most complex problems are political ones. He added that the government's Hamas to impose its control over all Syrian territory – by force of arms – "has not worked." Instead, he called for a national dialogue between the country's various components. "Only time, serious commitment and effort build that trust and understanding," he said, but given the government's current approach, "things are likely to get worse."

The newspaper said that the most influential dispute affecting Syria's stability is that of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish militia that has controlled a large swath of territory in northeastern Syria in recent years during the war against the Islamic State. The US-backed SDF signed an agreement with the Syrian government in March that provided in part for the "integration of all civilian and military institutions" into the Syrian state. However, the agreement has not yet been implemented, amid disagreements over the extent of autonomy the area now controlled by the SDF.

Complicating the situation is the continued violence between the SDF and Turkish-backed militias, which Ankara views as an adversary because of its links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a long-running insurgency against the Turkish state.

A SDF-sponsored minority conference in the eastern city of Hasakeh this month angered the Syrian government for calling for, among other things, a decentralized state. A few days later, the Syrian foreign minister said that the gathering "does not represent the Syrian people," accusing the participants of trying to "exploit the events in Sweida."

Anti-government sentiment is growing in the villages, towns and cities of Syria's coastal region, where Syria's Alawite minority lives. The coastal killings in March, sparked by attacks by Assad loyalists on government security forces, have killed at least 1,400 people and increased Alawite resentment. More than 200 government soldiers have been killed in the violence. But most of the massacre targeted civilians on the basis of their sect, with victims shot dead after being asked whether they were Alawites, by government forces or allied fighters, according to residents and a UN report on violence.

Frightened Sahel residents say they are skeptical about whether the government will bring the perpetrators to justice and, more importantly, whether their region will be welcomed as part of Syria and will not be seen as an unloyal region inhabited by nostalgia for an outgoing regime.

Khirbek, the mayor of the Rmeili district in the Jableh region, said more than 55 people in his area had been killed during the unrest. Shops he owned below his apartment were burned and destroyed, including a barbershop. However, Khairbek has acted as a mediator between government security forces who still maintain a heavy presence in Alawite areas and the local population.

But his job is not easy. He said that the residents of the neighborhood, who were still afraid to go out after dark, had branded him a traitor. The government ignored his pleas to deploy local residents to security checkpoints, preferring to have soldiers from Idlib, the Syrian province that al-Sharia ruled before he arrived in Damascus. However, Khairbek said that dividing Syria "will not solve our problems." "We need wheat from Hasakah," he said, referring to the eastern province of Syria on the Iraqi border, "they need the fish of the coast" and "we need each other".

In Arna, the Druze population continues to emphasize their community's historical ties to Syria and the importance of the Druze in the country's social fabric. Student Reem Abu Qais said: "We are all Syrians. We are all here together." She described the accusations against the Druze of trying to divide the country as "misleading".

Other locals have taken a defensive stance when discussing the role of Israel, which presents itself as the protector of the Syrian Druze. "They call us traitors," said one resident. Another added: "The Israelis don't ask our permission before they come here." But they are suspicious of the Sharia government, which they blamed for the violence in Sweida, which began with clashes between Druze and local Bedouin fighters in the city.

But grievances in Arna go beyond Sweida, where residents say they have been harassed at checkpoints as they try to leave the city. They complain that their Druze compatriots are discriminated against in state institutions, such as universities and hospitals.