Rubio says Israeli strike on Damascus was 'a misunderstanding' amid peace push

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday stated he believed Israel’s strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus was "seemingly a misunderstanding" amid issues over unrest that erupted this week.

"It is sophisticated," Rubio advised reporters after President Donald Trump requested him to take a query by a reporter within the Oval Workplace amid a bilateral assembly with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

"These are historic longtime rivalries between completely different teams within the southwest of Syria," Rubio stated, in reference to clashes between the Druze, a monotheistic faith rooted in Abrahamic beliefs, and the Bedouin, which is a Sunni-based tribal group. And it led to an unlucky state of affairs and a misunderstanding, it seems to be like, between the Israeli facet and the Syrian facet."

US President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Marco Rubio converse throughout a gathering within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP through Getty Photographs)

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Rubio stated he had been in communication with each side because the preventing erupted, which comes because the U.S. is trying to see Syria emerge as a beacon of hope within the Center East following the autumn of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December.

Reviews on Wednesday stated the Israeli strikes precipitated injury to the headquarters of the Syrian Protection Ministry and resulted within the loss of life of three folks and injured practically three dozen others.

Israel took motion to defend the Druze in southwest Syria in a area that sits on the border with the Golan Heights — an space that the U.N. maintains is Syrian territory however which Israel annexed within the early 80s — after the Syrian authorities was apparently seen as focusing on the Druze minority group there.

Issues over minority rights have been rising because the December takeover by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former terrorist organization, however whose designation was eliminated by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Members of the media {photograph} the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Syria's defence ministry headquarters on July 16, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Photographs)

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The Druze neighborhood — which is basically present in components of Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Syria — reportedly got here below elevated assaults this week by first Bedouin militias, after which Syrian authorities forces.

Reporting by the Related Press stated the clashes in southern Syria first erupted after a Druze man was attacked and robbed whereas stopped at a Bedouin checkpoint within the Sweida province.

Brutal tit-for-tat assaults then reportedly ensued, and the federal government despatched in forces to get management of the state of affairs, although stories recommend civilians continued to face brutal conditions with loss of life tolls ranging between 30 and 90 folks killed this week.

However footage and stories apparently surfaced to recommend the federal government forces had not solely begun attacking Druze communities by burning and looting their homes, but additionally had been focusing on Druze males by publicly humiliating them and forcibly shaving their mustaches.

Israeli Druze cross the border close to Majdal Shams in a present of assist for the Druze neighborhood in Hader on the Syrian facet on July 16, 2025. (Ilia Yefimovich/image alliance through Getty Photographs)

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"We predict we're on our method in the direction of, actual de-escalation after which hopefully get again on observe and serving to Syria construct a rustic," Rubio advised reporters, which is a part of the administration’s general aim to stabilize relations in the Middle East , significantly with Israel.

"Within the subsequent few hours, we hope to see some actual progress to finish what you've got been seeing during the last couple hours," the secretary added.