Saudi official says kingdom ready to send troops to Syria

“But what you might see is small numbers of ground troops and perhaps also special forces which would be there partly to make a symbolic point that Saudi Arabia is supporting the fight against ISIS”, she said, using another acronym for IS. “They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces”, said Jafari.

Airstrikes are being carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, and by Russian Federation – ostensibly against ISIS, although the USA claims it is targeting other anti-Assad rebel groups too.

On Friday, Pavel Krasheninnikov, the head of the Russian State Duma committee, warned Riyadh that any military ground operation in Syria without the Damascus government’s consent would amount to a declaration of war.

“Our policy is not dispatching massive forces to Syria, though there is an enthusiasm and very much willingness among IRGC members to take part in battles in Syria“, Fars news agency quoted Jafari as saying during the funeral of top IRGC general Mohsen Gajarian, who was killed in Syria on February 4. “This contradiction gives grounds for doubts, at least I think so, in the sincerity of the operation Saudi Arabia is speaking about”.

The predominantly Shiite republic of Iran is no friend to the Sunni terror group ISIS, but it also couldn’t be a fan of a Saudi military presence in a country whose regime Iran supports.

Offering to deploy ground forces is nearly certainly more of a message to Iran that the Saudi government will not tolerate its ongoing operations there in support of the regime of Bashar Assad, just as Saudi Arabia has criticized Iranian meddling in the civil war in its neighboring Yemen.

Last month, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said several members of the coalition are doing “nothing at all” to help destroy the jihadists. “The rationale on which ISIS would like to target Saudi Arabia are explicit and similar to those of al-Qaeda”.

The U.S. has been more welcoming to Saudi Arabia’s intended ground troop support.

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. He said Turkey would provide aid to the displaced within Syria, but would only open the gates in the event of an “extraordinary crisis”.

Iran has said it has dispatched military advisers to Syria, but denies sending combat troops.

However, Saudi Arabia does not have a strong record when it comes to anti-Daesh efforts. Any such intervention would be carried out in collaboration with Washington, which is Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, posing the threat of a direct confrontation between the USA and Russian Federation, the world’s two major nuclear powers.