Rubio warns that Syria can be a few weeks from the “full -scale civil war”

US Secretary of State Mark Rubio called for supporting the transitional bodies of Syria, warning that the country could stay in a few weeks from the “potential collapse and full -scale civil war of epic proportions”.

At the hearing of the Senate Foreign Committee, he defended President Donald Trump’s decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria before meeting President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, former al-Qaeda commander, who led the rebellion that Tipped Bashar al-Assad in December.

Trump’s justification was that other countries wanted to help the Sharaa administration and send help, but they feared sanctions, Rubio explained.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.

In the United States, sanctions on Syria were imposed in response to atrocities committed by the Assad, which was true during the devastating 13-year civil war of the country, in which more than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million were forced from their homes.

Earlier, the State Department insisted that several conditions that were fulfilled before they were removed, including the protection of religious and ethnic minorities.

Although Sharaa promised to do so, in recent months the country has been deployed by two waves of deadly sectaries.

In March, nearly 900 civilian residents, mostly members of Assad’s sect, were killed by officials throughout the Western coastal region during the security forces and former loyalists of the regime, one of the monitoring groups reports. Almost 450 civilians and 170 security officers were reportedly killed.

And in early May, more than 100 people were reportedly killed in the fighting between militants from the religious minority, new security forces and allied Islamist fighters in two suburbs of the Damascus and South Soveid province.

Even before the violence of many minorities, the new transition bodies, which are dominated by the Islamist Group Sharaa Sunni Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS). It is a former al-Qaeda branch that is still appointed terrorist organization of the United Nations, the USA, the EU and the UK.

Sharaa himself also continues to be brought to the United States as “a specially appointed global terrorist”, although in December the Biden administration announced that the US will disrupt $ 10 million (7.5 million pounds) proposed for his arrest.

Despite Sharaa’s past, Trump took the opportunity to meet him during a visit to the Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia last week.

Subsequently, the US president told reporters that he was “a young, attractive guy”, adding, “a heavy guy. A strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”

“He has a real shot when he is together (Syria),” he said, adding, “it’s a torn country.”

Meanwhile, Sharaa stated that Trump’s decision to raise sanctions on Syria “was a historical and bold decision that softens the suffering of people, promotes their revival and teaches the basics of stability in the region.”

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Committee in Washington on Tuesday, Rubio stopped that “the bad news is that the figures of the transition bodies … did not check the FBI.”

“But it is on the lapel when we attract them, it may work, it will not work. If we do not attract them, it was guaranteed not to work,” he added.

“In fact, this is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional power, given the problems they face, may be weeks, not many months away from the potential collapse and the full -scale civil war of epic proportions, the country has spread.”

He did not specify, but said that the minorities of Syria “were engaged in deep internal distrust … because the Assad deliberately relied on these groups against each other.”

He said Trump decided to rapidly lift the sanctions because “the people in the region want to get help, they want to start helping them. And they cannot, because they are afraid of our sanctions.”

As Rubio said, the European Union’s foreign ministers also agreed to lift economic sanctions on Syria.

“We want to help the Syrian peoples to restore new, inclusive and peaceful Syria,” wrote the head of the Kaj Kalas Block Policy on X.

“The EU has always stood on the Syrians for the last 14 years – and will continue to do it.”

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the decision was marked by “the beginning of a new section in Syrian-European relations built on general well-being and mutual respect.”