Syria's transition remains 'on a knife-edge' and violence could resume at any moment in the southern city of Sweida, which saw deadly clashes last month, the top UN envoy for Syria warned on Thursday. Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council that while violence in Sweida has largely subsided following a ceasefire, 'the threat of renewed conflict is ever-present ' as are the political centrifugal forces that threaten Syria's sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.'

Syria is grappling with deep ethnic and religious divisions following the ouster of Syria's autocratic President Bashar Assad in December, which brought an end to decades of Assad family rule. The transition has proven fragile, with renewed violence erupting in March along the coast and in July in Sweida, a city with a significant Druze population, highlighting the continued threat to peace after years of civil war.

Clashes erupted in Sweida on July 13 between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes, and government forces intervened, nominally to restore order but they ended up essentially siding with the Bedouins. Israel intervened in defence of the Druze, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters.