DAMASCUS — Syria's government lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations on Thursday, accusing Israel of arming and financing militias in the southern province of Suwayda. Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani announced the move in a statement from Damascus.

The complaint followed al-Shaibani's accusations earlier in the week that Israel was seeking to sow chaos in Suwayda, a Druze-majority region that has seen repeated sectarian clashes since the fall of Bashar al-Assad. Damascus submitted documentation to the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General.

Israel has previously said it acts to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria and has conducted airstrikes it described as warnings to the new authorities in Damascus. Israeli officials have rejected earlier Syrian accusations of interference as propaganda intended to deflect from the government's own failures to secure the south.

The diplomatic clash threatens to complicate indirect security talks between the two states that had been brokered with American encouragement. A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Damascus would seek an emergency Security Council discussion of the allegations if the council did not respond.

The United Nations did not immediately confirm receipt of the complaint. Researchers at the International Crisis Group have warned that renewed violence in Suwayda could unravel the fragile stabilisation efforts underway across southern Syria since December.