U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that Syria could be on the brink of a new civil war of "epic proportions," urging support for the transitional leadership.
"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 told a U.S. Senate hearing.
The top U.S. diplomat spoke after a series of bloody attacks on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria, where anti-regime-led fighters in December toppled Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive after a brutal civil war that began in 2011.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, announced a lifting of Assad-era sanctions and met with the leader who is now Syria's transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa, clad in a suit and complimented by Trump as a "young, attractive guy," was until recently on a U.S. wanted list.
Rubio quipped: "The transitional authority figures, they didn't pass their background check with the FBI."
But he added: "If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out."
Rubio, who also met with Syria's foreign minister in Türkiye on Thursday, blamed the renewed violence on the legacy of Assad, the toppled Syrian dictator.
"They are dealing with deep internal distrust in that country, because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other," Rubio said.
Assad, Syria's dictator for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.
Al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president for a transitional period in late January.
