Saudi Arabia would be willing to commit special forces to Syria should the international coalition decide to deploy ground troops against Islamic State, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
It was the Saudi minister’s second reference to sending special forces since he met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Monday for talks on the war in Syria and the crisis in Yemen.
“We will discuss details with experts from the countries involved to decide on the nature of the participation,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters during a visit to Morocco. He has declined to give any specific numbers.
President Barack Obama, anxious to avoid being sucked into another Middle East conflict after the long and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been deeply reluctant to commit U.S. ground forces in Syria.
But four months of Russian air strikes in Syria – which Moscow says are targeting Islamic State – have helped President Bashar al-Assad claw back territory from rebel fighters, alarming Gulf Arab states who back the insurgents.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the U.S.-led coalition that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014.
The government says it has carried out more than 190 aerial missions there, although it has focused its military efforts over the last year on the conflict in Yemen, where it is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf Arab forces battling Houthi fighters who control Sanaa.
Last week, an adviser to the Saudi defence minister said the kingdom was ready to participate in any ground operation in Syria, but did not specify the possibility of sending special forces on the ground.
Saudi Arabia in December also announced the formation of a 34-nation Islamic military coalition which it said would combat terrorism.
Kuwait backs alliances against Islamic State, but no troops:
Kuwait backs international efforts against extremist groups in Iraq and Syria although the Gulf Arab state’s constitution prevents it from sending troops to fight abroad, a senior Kuwaiti official said.
Kuwait, a US ally and neighbour of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, is part of a 34-nation alliance announced by Riyadh in December aimed at countering Islamic State and al Qaeda in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
Several Gulf Arab states including Kuwait also provide varying kinds of support to a US-led coalition that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014.
“Kuwait stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers in Saudi on all fronts. We are always ready and able to provide what is needed to our Gulf partners within the confines of our constitution,” said Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s minister for cabinet affairs, in an interview in Dubai.
It would be another of a mis-adventure. These 34 countries are not doing any service to Islam or peace of the area. They are only transferring their hard-earned Oil money into the coffers of the Arms Manufacturing Factories of the US and the West. Better if they spend this money in the betterment of the Ummah. They will only bring more destruction and misery for small neighbor Muslim countries if they continue their West-Oriented aggression policy.
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