U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that President Donald Trump personally intervened twice to halt fighting in Northeast Syria, in order to secure the transfer of thousands of ISIS prisoners and create time to work on integrating the Kurds into Syria’s national forces.
Rubio said: “When this situation erupted in the Northeast of Syria, Trump engaged personally, not once but twice, with al-Sharaa, and he said, ‘Stop the fighting so that we can move the ISIS prisoners that are there.’”
He explained that there were “Thousands of ISIS prisoners who, by the way, could have broken out and created havoc and chaos.” He added: “‘Stop the fighting so that we can move these ISIS prisoners and so that you can—we have more time to work on this reintegration, the integration of the Kurds into the national Syrian forces.’ And you know, al-Sharaa did it.”
Rubio on Syria:
When this situation erupted in the Northeast of Syria, Trump engaged personally, not once but twice, with al-Sharaa, and he said, “Stop the fighting so that we can move the ISIS prisoners that are there.”
Thousands of ISIS prisoners who, by the way, could have… pic.twitter.com/rfLm2iLPLm
— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 15, 2026
Rubio on Syria:
We had two choices in Syria. Choice number one was to let the place fall apart into 18 different pieces: long-term civil war, instability, mass migration, a playground for terrorists, ISIS running all over the place, Iran getting back in. That was choice number… pic.twitter.com/RwsKfjytX1
— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 15, 2026
Rubio stressed that al-Sharaa has kept his word so far, stating: “Now, he’s kept his word up to this point. Obviously, he has to keep doing that, but that’s what we’ve been able to achieve.” He added: “We’ve been able to get him to agree to do that, and that’s been important because we’ve been able to move those prisoners into Iraq and out of harm’s way so that we don’t have a massive jailbreak and 4,000 or 5,000 ISIS killers running crazy all over the place and threatening us in the future.”
He noted that this development has provided time to work on an integration agreement agreed upon between the Kurds and the Syrian authorities in Damascus, saying: “It’s given us time to work on this integration agreement, which they have agreed to between the Kurds and the Syrian authorities in Damascus. Now, you have to implement that agreement. That’s not going to be easy.”
Rubio added that further agreements are needed with other Syrian components: “There are other agreements that they need to reach with the Druze, the Bedouins, the Alawites, with all the elements of a very diverse society in Syria.”
He concluded by emphasizing that this outcome, despite its difficulty, is preferable to Syria’s fragmentation: “We think that outcome, as difficult as it has been, is far better than a Syria that would have been broken up into 18 pieces, with all kinds of fighting going on, all kinds of mass migration. So we’re very positive about that.”
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