ISISSaudi Arabia to send ground troops to Syria
Saudi Arabia said it was ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS. Saudi sources added that thousands of Saudi Special Forces could be deployed, probably in coordination with Turkey. Saudi gains in the war against pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen have freed Saudi resources to be directed to Syria, and the fact that Russia and the Assad regime focus their military effort on fighting the moderate rebels means that these rebels need more outside help to withstand the pressure both from ISIS and the Syrian regime and its allies.
Saudi armor ready to join the fight in Syria // Source: berkeley.edu
Saudi Arabia said it was ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS. “The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIS) may agree to carry out in Syria,” said Saudi military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri during an interview with al-Arabiya TV news.
Saudi sources added that thousands of Saudi Special Forces could be deployed, probably in coordination with Turkey.
NBC News reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey set up a military coordination body a few weeks ago.
Saudi Arabia was among the first Arab countries to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. The coalition launched its first attacks against ISIS in September 2014, and the Saudi Air Force took part in some of these attacks. Saudi Arabia’s contribution to the campaign against ISIS diminished after it began its own campaign, in March 2015, against pro-Iranian rebels in neighboring Yemen.
As was the case with other Arab members of the U.S.-led coalition, the Saudi contribution to the war against ISIS diminished when it became clear that the U.S. campaign against ISIS was not part of a broader campaign to remove President Assad from power and replace his regime with a Sunni-majority government.
Saudi Arabia has talked in the past about using it ground troop in the fight against ISIS, but observers note that the talk is more serious and more concrete now.
General al-Asiri said that recent progress against Houthi rebels in the war in Yemen was allowing Saudi Arabia to free up forces for deployment in Syria. A decision could be taken at a NATO summit in Brussels next week.
“There is frustration with the current efforts put in place to fight Daesh [ISIS],” said the Saudi analyst Mohammed Alyahya.
“Increasingly, it seems that none of the forces on the ground in Syria (besides rebel groups) are willing to fight ISIS. The Assad regime, Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah are preoccupied with fighting Bashar al-Assad’s opposition with one ostensible goal: to keep Bashar al-Assad in power, irrespective of the cost in innocent Syrian lives.”
