US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last Thursday met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and other ruling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) officials in Antalya, Turkey – just as President Trump controversially greeted Syria’s new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani) in Riyadh. Rubio’s was the first such US meeting with a Syrian foreign minister in fifteen years, the State Department later said.
Following this, Rubio on Tuesday went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to defend the administration’s dropping of all Syria sanctions, in order to “give them a chance” – as Trump said of Syria while on his Gulf visit. Rubio sounded an alarm, warning that the already war-torn country could be weeks away from civil war and collapse of the HTS government.