Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Tuesday that the US assesses the new al-Qaeda-linked Syrian government could collapse within weeks and that the country could descend into “full-scale civil war.”
Rubio made the comments at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, where he explained the administration’s rationale for engaging with Syria’s new de facto leaders, who the US helped put in power, despite their al-Qaeda roots.
Rubio recently met with Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, Syria’s new foreign minister, in Turkey. According to Turkish media reports, Shibani was a founding member of the al-Nusra Front, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate that eventually rebranded into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the offensive against former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and took power in Damascus in December 2024.
“The bad news is that the transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI. They’ve got a tough history and one that we understand,” Rubio said.
“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed that it would not work out,” he added. “In fact, it was our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse.”
Rubio said that a collapse would lead to “a full-scale civil war of epic proportions. Basically, the country splitting up.”
Rubio’s testimony came after President Trump announced he planned to lift sanctions on Syria and met with the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who was the leader of the al-Nusra Front and later HTS.
A civil war does appear to be brewing in Syria as HTS-affiliated jihadists have carried out massacres of Alawite civilians in western Syria and have also been clashing with Druze fighters around Damascus. In recent days, government forces have also launched raids against ISIS.
Syria has also faced heavy airstrikes from Israel since the regime change, and the Israeli military has invaded and seized territory in southern Syria. Sharaa has signaled that he’s willing to normalize relations with Syria to obtain sanctions relief from the US, but Israel appears more interested in continuing its occupation and bombing campaign in the country.
Orwell underestimated. It's impossible to square reality with Rubio's statements. Syria has been in a state of war for, what is it, over a decade, and is overrun with various invaders. Language has been abused to the point it becomes impossible to handle the wrongness of each statement one sentence at a time.
This is the goal of the propaganda, a person has to come into conversation with a fully-formed counternarrative and insist on fighting for the turf of every noun and verb or the dominant paradigm has already won.
Syria can begin having a "civil" war if multiple invading parties leave and Syrians attack each other.
"“The bad news is that the transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI. They’ve got a tough history and one that we understand,” Rubio said."
Your reference to Orwell maintains a summer-home in Rubio's statement.
Firstly we cannot tell if he was being cutesy or if he fully expects that the American Federal Bureau of Investigation vetts foreign governors. Remember, Al Qaeda is "America's worst enemy EVAHHH".
Secondly, yes, "they" (Al Qaeda) have a "tough history" – Dubya Bush declared an unsuccessful Global War against them nearly a quarter-century ago.
Thirdly, "one that we understand" appears to be an overt lie – if Rubio & the US Government "understood" HTS and Al-Q they'd have understood the "why" of 9/11 (and responded differently) AND never endorsed Al Qaedenese (and subset Daesh) activities in Syria…!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gdTL9qk0W9A
God willing, the terrorist occupation regime led by al-Sharaa and HTS will collapse very soon and the genocide against the indigenous Alawite, Christian, and Druze population will finally end and all of these foreign Wahhabi terrorists will be obliterated.
The best case scenario right now is that the terrorist HTS regime and ISIS destroy each other. If the child murdering regime of "Israel" is forced to enter the conflict, that would be even better and help hasten the collapse of that hopelessly sick genocidal entity.
The peoples of West Asia have suffered for decades from the endless crimes of Zionism. Most Americans have yet to understand that so-called "Islamic terrorism" was always, from the beginning, a Zionist creation, a Frankenstein monster that they lost control of. They created al-Qaeda, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, and all of these disgusting antihuman genocidal Wahhabi sects. The endgame was always the extermination of the Shia (which includes Alawites), Christians, Druze, and other non-Sunni indigenous peoples of the region, ultimately resulting in the destruction and partitioning of Iran. The Zionists really thought this was possible, just as they thought it was possible for Saddam to exterminate the Persians and Kurds in the 1980s. Their insanity knows no limits. Everything they have done against Iran and the Shia has only boomeranged against them. And now the child murdering Zionist regime is on the brink of collapse.
Everything we are witnessing is simply the chickens coming home to roost.
Fly over Syria, drop weapons and ammunition to them all and let them kill one another, problem solved. Strafe the survivors with A-10 and AC-130 gunships.
Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
How is it that Israel has been under attack since May 5th and is literally burning to the ground and NOT ONE publication is covering it?