David Daoud
speaker
530 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard 15 Aug
David Daoud’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And if it's gone, all the better.
Well, I described the situation in Syria as fragile, particularly the new administration's control over the country. Now, there have been deals yesterday to help stabilize the situation between the administration under the Muhammad al-Julani, also known as Ahmad al-Sharra, the new interim self-appointed president of Syria, and the SDF, the
colloquially known as the Kurds, but really a specific faction of the Kurds in Northeast Syria. There was also talk of a similar deal in the works between the administration in Damascus and the Druze in Sweden in Southern Syria. So what Shutout is trying to do is, through peaceful means, consolidate power over the country. He's only been in power since December 8th, really.
But he still has the issue with the Alawites on the coast, where he could face the most challenges to consolidating power, and that could threaten to unravel the rest of his control over Syria.
minimize its own crimes. So, it's hard to tell. It's been this case with Syria since the outset of the civil war. It's hard to tell what happened to whom. There have been videos that are credible of crimes against Alawites. Ahmed al-Shara, the current president, has threatened retribution for this to punish the perpetrators.
There have been claims of arrests of several individuals who were involved in these crimes. Again, is this for show? Is this not? It remains to be seen.
What can be said is that certain elements of the forces, now it's not just the HTS forces, but the broader coalition under Shada did commit crimes against minorities, particularly Alawites, but to a much lesser degree, Syrian Christians that are on the coast. The numbers have varied. I've heard somewhere between close to 1,000 up to 7,000. The 7,000 doesn't necessarily seem credible to me.
I would say closer to 1,000 seems more credible. Now, in terms of how armed are they? Well, they don't really need to be very armed. They don't need to be well armed. Right now, all they need to do is act as spoiler. Like I said, the Shara's rule in Syria is fragile. It has only been in power since December 8th. It doesn't have a real army to speak of.
I think estimates are somewhere between 40,000, 50,000. Now, there's recruitment going on, but the training takes time. From what I'm hearing, there's like 10 days of training before these guys get sent into the field. So these aren't credible fighters just yet. In terms of his army, what we've seen with the Israelis destroyed a lot of the former regime's arsenal.
These guys seem to be fighting with some remnants of that arsenal, but mostly light weapons, outdated weapons. So it's not a heavy list for the Alawites who just need to act... Let me narrow that. Not the Alawites. The Alawites who are still loyalists of the former Assad regime
who are probably allied with the Iranians, with Hezbollah, who are getting assistance from the Iranians, according to certain reports, to just act as spoiler.
They just need to prevent Shara'a from consolidating his control over the area, to get him into clashes and get his forces into clashes with minority communities, to give off this image that he has not repented of his past as an Al-Qaeda terrorist, that he still has it out for minorities. And that will not only prevent the alleviation of sanctions,
which he is demanding, which is necessary for him to grow his strength and consolidate power. It may lead to more sanctions, which will further weaken him. So, this lack of consolidation on the coast could then, in time, gradually grow and fracture Syria.
Look, I would assess that to have a high credibility. Iran, Hezbollah, their allies have a high interest in preventing the consolidation of control under Ahmadinejad of Syria. This was a main conduit for Iran to supply Hezbollah with weapons. Hezbollah is severely damaged after the recent war with Israel. The Lebanese have, under Israeli pressure and American pressure, tightened the screws
on Beirut International Airport to some degree for the entry of funds to Hezbollah. So this is a necessary lifeline for Hezbollah. Now, what does it take? What is the nature of that involvement? It could mean anything from logistics to, you know, acting in an advisory capacity to helping to spread the narrative, media warfare, narrative warfare. It doesn't take much.
Like I said, it's not a heavy lift for the Alawite loyalists of the former Assad regime to prevent the consolidation of Syria. And it won't take a lot from either Iran or Hezbollah to secure their interest of preventing this consolidation by a potentially hostile actor over Syria.
Again, they just need to give this image off to the world that this man remains the bloodthirsty terrorist that he was, which is, you know, there's a high likelihood that's true. And if that happens, again, sanctions remain, which means over time he weakens and could tighten, which again, would weaken him further. So it takes little from them to secure this major interest.
Well, look, it's not just the militants that were killed, the Assad supporters that were militants. It seems to be that civilians were also killed. Alawite civilians were also killed. Who's responsible? It could be elements from within HTS. It could be elements from within the SNA.
There are also foreign jihadists that have attached themselves to Ahmad al-Sharaf's forces, namely Chechens and others from Central Asia, Uyghur fighters. who were there for ideological purposes, who were proper jihadists.
Now, the question is, did the orders come from on high or were these rogue actors who were simply venting their frustrations at, if they were of Syrian origin, at the oppression that the Alawite sect is associated with because of its association with the Assad regime? That's not a justification, but this could be the mindset. Or are they proper jihadists who are acting on ideology?
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