Welcome to The Inquiry with me, Tanya Beckett, from the BBC World Service.

One question, four expert witnesses and an answer.

On the 13th of July, Fadlala Dawara, a man from the Druze community in southern Syria,

was on his way home to Suwada when his truck was hijacked by a group of armed men.

The vegetable cellar was pulled out of his vehicle, beaten, then abandoned on the side of the road.

The attackers took his money and phone and left with his truck, vegetables and all.

The highway robbery set off a week-long cycle of deadly violence that left over

a thousand people dead and over 125,000 displaced.

Several days of tit-for-tat attacks followed between Druze and Bedwin fighters, all, along with the Syrian army, were accused of killing civilians.

The violence even drew in Israel, which launched attacks on the Syrian capital, Damascus. The week of hostilities was then brought to an end, with a fragile ceasefire brokered by the United States.

This latest bout of violence comes hot on the heels of Syrian troops and allied militia,

being accused at massacring hundreds of people from another minority community, the Alawites, in March.

All this, just over six months after the country celebrated hopes for a new start

after decades of dictatorship.

And yet the ongoing violence suggests that sectarian divisions remain rife.

This week on the inquiry, we're asking, what does the recent conflict in Syria

tell us about al-Sharah's presidency?

Part 1, Syria's rich tapestry.

Syria is a very diverse country in every sense, in the geography, the natures of the local societies,

the ethnicities, the religions, the sects and the sub-s, and the sub-subs-subs-sects.

Managing Syria is always about succeeding in managing this diversity.

And the question, how do you do it?

...