Dubai: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter welcomed on Thursday a Saudi offer to participate in any ground operations in Syria launched by the US-led coalition.
Carter said increased activity by other countries would make it easier for the United States to accelerate its fight against Daesh militants.
“That kind of news is very welcome,” he told reporters while on a visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Carter said he looked forward to discussing the offer of ground troops with the Saudi defence minister in Brussels next week.
He said the Saudi government had indicated a willingness to do more in the fight against Daesh, which controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.
For instance, Saudi officials had said they would help marshal some Muslim countries to join in the fight, and to ensure that Iraqi and Syrian populations were able to prevent a re-emergence of the military group later, Carter said.
Carter said he planned to use next week’s meetings in Brussels to help encourage more broad-based support for accelerating the fight against Daesh.
The Saudi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmad Asiri said Thursday the kingdom is ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight Daesh provided coalition leaders agree during an upcoming meeting in Brussels.
He said that Saudi Arabia has taken part in coalition airstrikes against Daesh since the US-led campaign began in September 2014, but could now provide ground troops.
It appeared to be the first time that Saudi Arabia had publicly suggested such a possibility and that it had done so without first discussing the matter with the United States and the other nations fighting Daesh.
The United States is scheduled to convene a meeting of defence ministers from countries fighting Daesh in Brussels this month.
“We are determined to fight and defeat Daesh,” Asiri said. He didn’t elaborate on how many troops the kingdom would send.
Saudi Arabia is deeply involved in Yemen’s civil war, where it is fighting Iranian-backed Al Houthis. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have long viewed Iran as a regional menace, and Riyadh and Tehran back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen.
A spokesman said the US State Department said that “in general we want members of the coalition against Daesh to look for ways to do more and to contribute more.”
Mohammad Al Yahya, a Saudi analyst, told ‘The Guardian’ that there is frustration in the kingdom at efforts put in place to fight Daesh,
“Increasingly, it seems that none of the forces on the ground in Syria (besides rebel groups) is willing to fight [Daesh]. The Al 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.”
— with inputs from Bloomberg and agencies
