UAE says ready to send ground troops to Syria

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Saudi counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir said that their countries would seek to reach an immediate cease-fire in Syria at global talks to be held in Munich on Thursday.

He says the forces might provide training and support, but the country is “not talking about thousands of troops”.

He added that a prerequisite for the UAE to join would be leadership from the United States on the matter.

The United Arab Emirates said it was ready to send ground troops to fight with an global military coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria, a high ranking official said Sunday. They are close allies and are the driving force behind a Saudi-led coalition fighting on the side of Yemen’s internationally recognised government against Iranian-supported Shi’ite rebels in Yemen.

“So it’s our hope that because we both believe in diplomacy that over the course of these next days some progress can be made with respect to Syria and we can lay the groundwork for even more efforts ahead”.

Iran, another military ally of Syria, ridiculed Saudi Arabia. Assiri’s comment came as regime troops pressed a major Russian-backed offensive around Syria’s second city Aleppo following the suspension of peace talks.

However, Bahrain does not wish to be part of a ground operation in Syria:”We take great interest in the stability of the brother nation [of Syria] and the expulsion of terrorists from its land”.

Observers in Damascus say that the Saudis and other regional powers have always placed their bets on dealing a defeat to the Syrian government, by providing a big deal of support to the insurgents seeking Assad’s ouster. Carter said he looked forward to discussing the offer of ground troops with the Saudi defense minister in Brussels next week.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem warned Saudi Arabia not to send troops to his country, threatening, during a press conference Saturday, that troops would be sent back home in coffins.

“They are overstretched. But in principle I think they will not hesitate to send a certain number of their fighters to fight in Syria”, Alani said, adding that this would probably include Saudi special forces.