U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that all parties have agreed on concrete steps to end the latest wave of violence in Syria, following deadly Israeli airstrikes and communal unrest.
“We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight,” Rubio wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do," he added.
Rubio did not provide further details about the agreed-upon measures or which parties were involved in the talks.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a press briefing that the U.S. is calling on the Syrian government to withdraw its forces, which were deployed to restore order.
"We are calling on the Syrian government to, in fact, withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward," Bruce said. "That's obviously the goal, because of the nature of what's happened. The Secretary phrased this as a misunderstanding."
"We do understand that the Israeli forces intervened to protect the Druze - that is something we can confirm," she added.
Asked by Anadolu Agency (AA) whether the U.S. considers the Syrian presidential palace and military headquarters, belonging to a government whose leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has met and been praised by President Donald Trump, as legitimate targets for Israeli airstrikes, Bruce declined to comment directly.
"I'm not going to comment on how Israel makes its decisions about what it feels the need to do," she said. "We understand, again, that they intervened to protect the Druze ... but we are clearly involved in the framework of stopping this and de-escalating. We will no doubt have more answers as the days go on."
