Outstanding issues between Damascus, the armed Druze groups, and the SDF can likely be resolved through protracted negotiations and mutual willingness to compromise.

The death toll from two days of clashes between security forces and loyalists of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and revenge killings that followed has risen to more than 600, a war monitoring group said Saturday.

At least 240 people have been killed in northwest Syria as fierce clashes escalate between government forces and loyalists of former President Bashar al-Assad, marking the deadliest violence since the fall of Assad three months ago.