Damascus: Syria’s government warned Saturday against any foreign ground intervention in its war after reports that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which both support rebel forces, could send in troops.
“Any ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorisation would amount to an aggression that must be resisted,” Foreign Minister Walid Al Mu’allem said at a news conference in Damascus.
“We assure you that any aggressor will return to his country in a wooden coffin.”
“Any ground intervention in Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, will be considered an aggression that should be resisted by every Syrian citizen,” he told a news conference in Damascus. “I regret to say that they will return home in wooden coffins.”
Al Mu’allem’s comments capped a week that saw the collapse of UN-led efforts to launch indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and an opposition delegation in Geneva.
The talks broke down in large part because of Syrian government offensives, including on the outskirts of Aleppo, once the country’s largest city. The offensive, aimed at encircling rebel strongholds in Aleppo, was backed by intense Russian air strikes and sent thousands of area residents fleeing toward a closed Turkish border.
Al Mu’allem said the government advances signaled that the five-year-old Syria war is nearing its end.
“I can say, from the achievements for our armed forces ... that we are now on track to end the conflict,” he said.
“Like it or not, our battlefield achievements indicate that we are headed toward the end of the crisis.”
Opposition representatives have said they cannot be expected to negotiate in Geneva at a time when the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, are escalating attacks on rebel strongholds.
Al Mu’allem dismissed the representatives of the Saudi-backed opposition in Geneva, suggesting they followed orders from Saudi Arabia and were “not real Syrians.”
He alleged the opposition never intended to negotiate seriously.
“They did not come to have dialogue, they did not have such orders,” he said.
Al Mu’allem said the Syrian government was ready to have dialogue with Syrians, but without preconditions.
