Saudi Arabia says ready for coalition ground operations in Syria

Saudi Arabia says ready for coalition ground operations in Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday, Feb 4, it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the U.S.-led alliance decides to start such operations, an adviser to the Saudi Defense Minister said, according to Reuters.

"The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against Islamic State) may agree to carry out in Syria," Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, who is also the spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen, told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV in an interview.

Asseri said Saudi Arabia had been an active member of the U.S.-led coalition that had been fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014, and had carried out more than 190 aerial missions.

He said Saudi Arabia, which has been leading Arab military operations against the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen, believed that to win against Islamic State, the coalition needed to combine aerial operations with ground operations.

"If there was a consensus from the leadership of the coalition, the kingdom is willing to participate in these efforts because we believe that aerial operations are not the ideal solution and there must be a twin mix of aerial and ground operations," Asseri said.

Asked about the comments at a briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the coalition was generally supportive of having partners contribute more in the fight against Islamic State but he had not seen the Saudi proposal. "I would not want to comment specifically on this until we've had a chance to review it," he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter welcomed the decision. "That kind of news is very welcome," he told reporters while on a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, according

Carter said he looked forward to discussing the offer of ground troops with the Saudi Defense Minister in Brussels next week.

He said the Saudi government had indicated a willingness to do more in the fight against Islamic State, which controls vast swaths of Syria and Iraq.

The Pentagon chief said the United States was also watching events in Libya very carefully but had made no decision on expanding its role there.

"The concern there is that Libya not get on a glide slope to the kind of situation that we find elsewhere, where (Islamic State), in a politically disrupted environment, seizes a foothold, gathers a piece of territory from which it is able to tyrannize people, and plot operations elsewhere," Carter said.

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