Syria on the brink? Rubio warns of ‘full-scale civil war of epic proportions’

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.

The top American diplomat blamed a resurgence of Islamic State in areas outside the transitional government’s control, as well as Iran.

He told a US Senate hearing that the government, “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 spoke after a series of bloody attacks on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria, where Islamist-led fighters in December toppled then-president Bashar al-Assad, capping 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 guerilla leader who is now Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.