Riyadh: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said Sunday that Russia’s efforts to support Syrian President Bashar Al Assad will not succeed in keeping him in power.
Al Jubeir told a press conference in Riyadh that previous efforts to prop up Al Assad, including by Iran, had “failed”.
“Now, (Al Assad) has sought the help of Russia, which will fail to save him,” he said.
He also said that any decision by Saudi Arabia to deploy special forces into Syria is linked to the US-led coalition fighting Daesh.
“The Kingdom’s deployment of aircraft to the Incirlik air base in Turkey is part of this campaign. The kingdom’s readiness to provide special forces to any ground operations in Syria is linked to a decision to have a ground component to this coalition against Daesh in Syria - this US-led coalition - so the timing is not up to us,” Al Jubeir told a news conference with his Swiss counterpart in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia confirmed late on Saturday it sent aircraft to Nato-member Turkey’s Incirlik airbase for the fight against Daesh militants.
Brigadier General Ahmad Assiri, adviser in the office of Saudi Arabia’s minister of defence, told pan-Arab Al Arabiya television that the kingdom was committed to stepping up the fighting against Daesh and that the move was part of those efforts.
He also said that the current presence in the airbase was limited to aircraft and no ground troops had been sent.
“What is present now is aircraft that are part of the Saudi Arabian forces,” Assiri said in response to a question on whether ground troops were included.
Saudi Arabia has resumed its participation in air strikes against Daesh in recent weeks and US Defence Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday welcomed its commitment to expand its role.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the Yeni Safak newspaper on Saturday that Saudi Arabia had carried out inspections at the airbase in preparation to sending aircraft.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian commander warned Saudi Arabia on Sunday against the move to send troops. “We definitely won’t let the situation in Syria to go forward the way rebel countries want... We will take necessary actions in due time,” deputy chief of staff Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri told Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Aalam television.
Jazayeri was responding to a question on whether Iran planned to send more military advisors to Syria were Saudi troops to be deployed there, risking a direct confrontation between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Turkey hit Kurdish and Syrian regime positions in northern Syria, further complicating efforts to end the war, which has killed more than 470,000 people since it began in 2011.
Iran, Syria’s regional ally, supports President Bashar Al Assad by sending “military advisers” and volunteers to fight alongside the Syrian army.
“Today, with the victories of the Syrian army and the popular forces, they want to send troops to Syria, but it is a bluff and a psychological war,” Jazayeri added.
-Reuters & AFP
