Rubio: If Damascus falls, Syria will become Iran’s playground

According to RCO News Agency, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has gone to Canada to participate in the Group of Seven meeting, appeared in the group of journalists and answered their questions.

Russians want Donbass

Rubio, in response to a question about whether Washington’s assessment is that Russia does not want peace? “I think they’ve made it clear what they want, they want the rest of Donetsk, and obviously the Ukrainians won’t agree to that,” he said.

The US Secretary of State added: Therefore, what we are seeing now is that they are continuing long-range attacks on Ukraine, and they have also made gains in Donetsk. I mean, that’s the assessment we have to make.

Russia is trying to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people

In response to the question of whether the United States has made a commitment to support Ukraine in the field of energy or other ways to help this country?, he described helping Ukraine to pass the upcoming winter as important from a humanitarian point of view and said: We have had conversations with the Ukrainians about their needs and I know that these conversations are ongoing. The challenge is that Ukraine’s energy grid has decreased every year, and I think that now in Kyiv, more than 50-60% of the day is spent without electricity. There are hours of the day when there is no water and electricity. And this is clearly part of the Russian strategy, to try to destroy the morale of the people in Ukraine and the will to fight.

“That’s why we’ve been negotiating with them about defensive weapons to protect their power grid and about the specific equipment they need,” Rubio continued. But ultimately, if that equipment ends up being destroyed a week after installation, it remains a problem. And this story has been going on for the past two or three years.

Relations with Russia are separate from the issue of Ukraine

He answered whether there are any negotiations going on now and before the expiration of the “New Start” agreement in February. “No, there’s no active, open discussion about possibly talking to them about this, but we’re separating that from the whole Ukraine thing,” he noted. We communicate with the Russians every day on different levels, maybe not at my level but whether it’s about the operations of our embassies, whether it’s about issues or things like you asked about New Start.

In response to the question of whether the United States will intervene in the European plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, the US Secretary of State said: He clarified that this is a European issue and that the Treasury Secretary is working on the issue of frozen assets in the United States and Washington’s approach to that.

The EU cannot determine what international law is

He continued his conversation with reporters about how Europeans in Canada talked about the legality of US attacks on boats in the Caribbean under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking and believe that there are two reasons why an operation can be legal: self-defense and the UN resolution; Neither of these apply to US military operations in the Caribbean, he said: “I don’t think the EU can determine what international law is, and what they certainly can’t determine is how the United States defends its national security.”

He claimed: The United States is under attack by organized drug terrorists and the president is reacting in defense of our country. The president has made it abundantly clear that his job is to protect the United States from threats against the country, and that’s what he’s doing in this operation.

Venezuela has no government!

Rubio also claimed about the Venezuelan government’s announcement that it will conduct a massive military mobilization in response to the US threat: “They don’t have a government.” It is an illegitimate regime and basically a drug trafficking organization that has empowered itself. So, I usually don’t respond to what they say. But this is an anti-narcotics operation, and if they stop sending the drug boats, there will be no problem.

Continuing his claims, he pointed to the cooperation of the United States with other countries in the southern hemisphere, including Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala and others, for what he called combating drug trafficking to the United States, and once again accused the Venezuelan government of cooperating with traffickers.

We want to give the rulers of Syria a chance

In another part of his speech, the US foreign minister said about the resumption of the Syrian embassy in the US and whether Washington also wants to reopen its embassy in Damascus. He said: We want to give these people (Syrian rulers) every chance to succeed. They have told us that they want to create a Syrian national government where every element of Syrian society is represented and feels safe. They want Syria to be a country, not a launching pad for attacks against their neighbors.

He pointed out that “if this does not happen and Syria falls, the other option will be for Syria to be involved in a civil war” and claimed: In this case, Syria will become the playground of almost every dangerous element in the Middle East, including the return of Iran, and it will even strengthen Hezbollah. So, we don’t want to see that happen and this is the best option on the table to prevent it from happening.

Some people have relatively radical ideas in Syria

Rubio added: “We hope that they will succeed, but no one can guarantee that they will succeed.” Their task is very difficult. Some of the elements that helped the current government come to power and oust Assad are foreign fighters. Some of them who came and helped him are people who have fairly radical views, and not all of them are completely under the control of the Damascus government. There are problems with the Kurds in the north. There are problems with the Bedouins and Druze in the south. All these things must be balanced.

He claimed that if the current government of Syria falls, this country will become a stateless space and a playground for ISIS, Hezbollah, Iran, Al-Qaeda and any other elements in the region, and “we will have a completely new war in Syria.”

No part of Gaza should be under Hamas control

The senior American diplomat also said about the Gaza Strip and the existence of a yellow line in this area, which, according to him, distinguishes between the parts of Gaza that are under the control of Hamas and the parts that are not under the control of Hamas, and claimed that ultimately no part of it should be under the control of Hamas.

Continuing his claims, he said: There must be a Palestinian civilian organization to govern Gaza, and the goal is to keep that organization standing, give it capacity, allow it to grow both in terms of ability and credibility, and ultimately govern Gaza. The Israelis do not want to rule Gaza. We do not want to rule Gaza. No country in the Middle East wants to rule Gaza. But creating this capability will take some time and in the meantime someone has to provide security.

There are concerns about the West Bank

In response to a question about the violence of the Zionist settlers in the West Bank, who always carry out this violence with impunity, and whether it can in any way and potentially, weaken or endanger some of the agreements in Gaza? He stated: “I hope not, but there are certainly concerns about events in the West Bank spreading and creating an impact that could undermine what we are doing in Gaza.” We do not expect this to happen. We will do our best to make sure this does not happen.

Rubio further pointed to the recent statements of some Zionist officials condemning the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which in no case has led to the perpetrators of the attacks being punished.

He claimed: Therefore, I think that the Israelis reacted today and actually sent forces to respond to these attacks.

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