Rubio Warns Syria Weeks Away from Collapse and Civil War

Rubio Warns Syria Weeks Away from Collapse and Civil War

Emmitt Barry

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned lawmakers Tuesday that Syria may be just weeks away from collapsing into a new civil war, citing fears that the fledgling transitional government in Damascus could soon fall apart without urgent international support

Rubio, who met with Syrian officials during President Trump’s recent Middle East trip, said that President Trump’s decision to issue a 180-day sanctions waiver after meeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia was driven by concerns of imminent instability.

“It is our assessment that… the transitional authority… [is] maybe weeks — not many months — away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The waiver is intended to allow regional allies to assist in rebuilding Syria’s governance and military structures. But Rubio cautioned that sanctions relief alone won’t be sufficient to stabilize the country, which has endured more than 14 years of conflict.

Al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda-linked militant who helped topple the Assad regime last year, met with Trump during a Saudi-brokered summit where the U.S. urged him to join the Abraham Accords. Despite his extremist past, al-Sharaa has rebranded himself as a defender of Syria’s religious minorities.

Rubio acknowledged the risks of engaging with controversial figures in the transitional authority. “It may work out, it may not… If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out,” he said.

Rubio closed with a stark warning: “If Syria collapses again, the whole region could be engulfed. We’ve seen this movie before.”