Secretary of State Rubio: Syria may be weeks away from collapse

Rubio was referring to sectarian violence against the Alawite and Druze minority groups in Syria.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the new government in Syria may be “weeks away” from collapse and civil war.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said, “It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks—not many months—away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up.”

Rubio was referring to sectarian violence against the Alawite and Druze minority groups in Syria. This issue concerned the Trump administration even as the president met with the new Syrian leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and lifted sanctions against the country that were imposed during the Assad regime.

Referring to al-Sharaa, who until recently was on the FBI’s wanted list over his jihadist connections, Rubio said, “The transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI.”

However, he added, “If we engage them, it may work out; it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed not to work out.”

Rubio, who met with Syria’s foreign minister in Turkey on Thursday, blamed the sectarian violence on Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s deposed leader.

“They are dealing with deep internal distrust in that country because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other,” Rubio said.

He explained that the main motivation for lifting the sanctions was to allow other countries to provide assistance. “The nations in the region want to get aid in, want to start helping them, and they can’t because they’re afraid of our sanctions,” he said.

Earlier this month, the IDF undertook operations in Syria to protect the Druze population. Five wounded Syrian Druze civilians were evacuated to receive medical treatment at Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

The IDF was deployed in southern Syria to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages.

The development followed an Israeli operation that targeted an area near the presidential palace in Damascus, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was “a clear message to the Syrian regime.”

“We will not allow regime forces to move south of Damascus or to pose any danger to the Druze community,” Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz.