Syria is potentially “weeks” away from collapse, even though the U.S. recently eased longstanding sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers Tuesday.
The current Syrian government under interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is on the brink of collapse, which in part prompted the U.S. to ease sanctions earlier in May in hopes of avoiding more civil war in the country, Rubio told members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a Tuesday hearing. Syria’s new provisional government rose out of the successful insurgency of Salafist jihadist terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which ousted former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in a two-week blitz to Damascus in December 2024.
“Where Syria is unstable, the region becomes unstable,” Rubio said during the hearing. “It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they were facing, are maybe weeks, not many months away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”
Rubio also stressed that the U.S. could not stop at sanctions relief, and that something more “comprehensive” from Congress will be needed to ensure long-term stability in the region. As of December 2024, up to 620,000 people died throughout the Syrian civil war, according to The New York Times.
Al-Sharaa is a former al-Qaeda militant who was detained by the U.S. military during the Iraq War. He split from Al-Qaeda in 2017 over ideological differences, but HTS retains most of their progenitor’s philosophy on Islam and the role of jihad.
Rubio pointed out that while the government in Syria is not ideal, refusing to work with them could be a fatal mistake that causes ramifications beyond the country’s borders.
“The bad news is that the transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio said during the hearing. “If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out.”
Al-Sharaa has attempted to distance himself from his jihadist past, but some remain skeptical as to how he will govern, especially with respect to minority communities in Syria like the Alawites. The minority group’s loyalty to Assad, who himself was an Alawite who protected the group, prompted reported mass killings at the hands of militants in March.
Trump is wagering a considerable gamble in opening up relations with Syria given the many question marks about the new government and its values, experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The State Department did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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