China calls for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity to be respected

China on Thursday called for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity to be respected, as Israel's heavy airstrikes on Syrian capital Damascus have drawn widespread attention.   

Some experts noted that Israel's recent military actions in the Middle East - enabled in part by US leniency - have intensified regional instability as it seeks to expand its strategic reach, potentially deepening humanitarian crises and accelerating already unfolding risks.

"Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected. In particular, given the continuous ongoing turbulence in the Middle East, there shouldn't be any action that may lead to escalation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday that protecting Druze citizens and their rights is "our priority," as Israel vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria. In his first televised statement, al-Sharaa addressed Druze citizens, saying "we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party," according to Reuters. 

Turning to Israel, al-Sharaa accused the "Israeli entity" of consistently targeting Syrian stability and seeking to incite internal conflict since the fall of the former Syrian government. He accused Israel of aiming to "turn Syria into a permanent battlefield, weaken its national cohesion, and obstruct its reconstruction process," according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday. The announcement came after Israel launched airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze, according to the Associated Press.

According to the Al Jazeera's report on Thursday, Syrian government forces have withdrawn from areas they entered in recent days in Sweida, the heartland of the Druze minority in southern Syria. 

Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that "responsibility" for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions "based on the supreme national interest," said the report. 

The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military. The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, AP reported. 

A BBC report on Thursday noted that Israel's strikes "represented the most serious Israeli escalation in Syria since December 2024, when it obliterated hundreds of military sites across the country and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Syrian Golan Heights." 

Israel has sought to expand its influence in southern Syria, viewing the Druze as a potential local ally. The Syrian army's advance undermines this foothold and risks bringing armed forces closer to Israel's southern border - both developments that Israel finds unacceptable, Tian Wenlin, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Studies, told the Global Times.

Zhu Yongbiao, a professor from the School of Politics and International Relations in Lanzhou University, said that Israel's airstrikes are a continuation of its "maximum operations" strategy. Following the October 7 attacks, Israel has sought to restore deterrence through sustained airstrikes, signaling that any attack will trigger retaliation.

The Wednesday strikes likely mark the start of a broader campaign. Israel may politically court and militarily support minority or sectarian groups in Syria, providing training and arms to build a controllable force. Unlike the singular goal of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, this strategy aims to expand strategic depth and reshape the regional order in Israel's favor, Zhu told the Global Times. 

A report from AP on Thursday described the "violence" in Syria as the "most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria's new rulers to consolidate control of the country." 

Zhu also said that the current situation may raise security risks in Syria, with renewed civil war, the resurgence of armed groups, and deeper national fragmentation all becoming more likely. 

"These developments pose new challenges for both Syria and the broader region," said Zhu. 

Global reaction

On Wednesday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, "The Secretary-General [António Guterres] is alarmed by the continued escalation of violence in Sweida" and "unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians," according to a release from the UN website.  

Guterres further condemned Israel's "escalatory airstrikes" on Sweida, Daraa and central Damascus, together with "reports of the IDF's redeployment of forces in the Golan," the highly-contested mountainous region along the border of the two countries.

Several Arab states, including Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, and Kuwait, have condemned the Israeli strikes targeting Syrian government and security forces. Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry denounced what it described as "Israel's blatant attacks" on Syria, while Iran described the attacks as "all too predictable," according to BBC. 

Turkey, a key stakeholder in post-Assad Syria, described the strikes as "an act of sabotage against Syria's efforts to secure peace, stability and security."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US was "very concerned" about the violence and announced on July 16: "We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight."

The US aims to avoid deeper entanglement in regional conflicts, yet repeatedly ends up passively endorsing Israel's aggressive actions. This effectively gives Israel a "blank security check," with Washington left to manage the fallout. As Israel launches more strikes, the US faces mounting reputational costs and is increasingly viewed as complicit by Middle Eastern nations, said Tian. 

Fresh off its clash with Iran, Israel has turned to Syria, further fueling Middle East instability, said Tian, noting that Israel's strikes span nearly the entire "Axis of Resistance" - from the Houthis and Iran to Syria. 

Israel's reliance on force to address security concerns is instead a key source of regional unrest, said the expert. 

With the regional order already shattered by recent conflicts, Israel may become bolder, while the US and other countries remain largely indifferent, creating a "broken windows" effect, Zhu said. 

In the long run, this will worsen humanitarian crises and further erode the UN Charter's principle of sovereignty - trends that are already unfolding and accelerating in the region, said Zhu.