Syria weeks away from ‘full-scale civil war’: Rubio

AFP | Washington

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that Syria could be weeks away from a fresh civil war of “epic proportions,” as he called for support to 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 US Senate hearing. The top US diplomat spoke after a series of bloody attacks on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria, where Islamist-led fighters in December toppled Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive after a brutal civil war that began in 2011.

US President Donald Trump last week on a visit to Saudi Arabia announced a lifting of Assad-era sanctions and met with the guerrilla leader who is now Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Sharaa, clad in a suit and complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy,” was until recently on a US wanted list over jihadist connections.

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.”