With US support, Saudi Arabia ready to send special forces to Syria

In cooperation with the United States, Saudi Arabia is “ready to send ground troops” to Syria to fight against Daesh, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir announced on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung German newspaper on Tuesday, Al-Jubeir said: “The Kingdom and other Gulf countries said it was ready to allocate forces to fight on the US side.”

He noted that discussions with the US forces are underway to “find out what the plan is and what you need to implement it.” He explained that the plan would be announced “soon”.

The foreign minister affirmed that the liberated territories from Daesh, must be handed over to the Syrian opposition. “The basic idea is to free the region from the IG [Daesh] and not to allow their controlled Hezbollah, Iran or the Syrian regime,” he said.

President Donald Trump has ordered the US Defence Secretary James Mattis, to prepare an anti-terrorism plan within a month for fighting Daesh.

On Geneva’s Syrian peace talks, which are scheduled to start on 23 February, Al-Jubeir said that it should be concluded with an agreement for a “new Syria without Assad”.

On 23 January, Russia, Iran and Turkey started talks on the Syrian conflict, which was held in the Kazakhstani capital Astana, during which the three countries agreed on a mechanism to monitor the truce in Syria.