US warns of Syria's collapse without embracing rebranded al-Qaeda
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has appealed for further American and regional support for the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led administration in Syria to ward off its “potential collapse ” amid the ruling regime’s suppression of minorities.
Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio issued the warning about the possible collapse of the HTS regime of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani while defending the removal of US sanctions on Damascus and urging deeper American involvement to prevent another war in Syria.
“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,” the US secretary of state said.
Rubio stressed that sanctions relief “will not suffice,” urging “congressional action or a broader strategy” to stabilize the country after 14 years of war.
The US official said sanctions relief could enable “neighboring countries to begin to assist the transitional authority to build governance mechanisms that allow them to actually establish a government, unify the armed forces under one banner and the like.”
Underlining the necessity of US engagement with the HTS-led administration in Syria, Rubio said, “If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it is guaranteed to not work out.”
Acknowledging concerns about Jolani, a US-designated terrorist, and members of Syria’s transitional authority, he said, “The bad news is that the transitional authority figures—they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI.”
Rubio also said a more stable Syria that did not serve as a “launchpad for attacks” against Israel would be an “extraordinary achievement” for the Tel Aviv regime’s “security.”
The US diplomat made the comments after a series of bloody attacks by the HTS administration on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria following the ouster of Syria’s democratically-elected president Bashar al-Assad led by the militant group in December last year.
Since the start of March, hundreds of Alawite families have been massacred by HTS forces under Jolani’s command and dozens of young Alawite women have been kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by the former Daesh and al-Qaeda militants.
The HTS violence also extended to Druze villages south of Damascus, where heavy clashes have been reported.
On a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, US President Donald Trump announced a lifting of Assad-era sanctions and met with Jolani, the HTS leader who is now Syria’s transitional president.
Clad in a suit and complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy,” Jolani was until recently on a US wanted list over terrorist affiliations.
The 42-year-old Jolani was in prison in Iraq for years on charges of belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist outfit after the 2003 US-led invasion of the Arab country. He is still under US and UN sanctions for his ties to the terrorist group, which the American officials confirmed to have been established by the then administration in Washington.
Trump’s removal of anti-Damascus sanctions came after Jolani expressed readiness to normalize ties with Israel.
Last week, Israeli media reported that a delegation from the HTS-led administration in Syria made a secret visit to the occupied territories to hold direct talks with Israeli officials.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently described how the Israeli military helped the HTS takeover of Syria in December.
Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syria and occupied large swathes of territory in the country, in addition to the Golan Heights, which it occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967.
