Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Why A Saudi Ground Operation In Syria Is A Bad Idea

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed al Asiri

Alexander Decina, Daily Beast: Saudi Troops to Syria? Whoa. Bad Idea!

If Riyadh and its partners actually intend to send troops to Syria, it will be an incredibly risky move that will prolong the civil war.

On Feb. 4, the spokesman for the Saudi military, Brigadier General Ahmed al Asiri, made a bold announcement. The Gulf kingdom, he said, would commit troops to a ground operation against ISIS if the United States asked it to and if the coalition agreed to it. Asiri made the statement sitting in front of the flags of all six Gulf Cooperation Council member states, implying that Saudi Arabia could take up the mantle of leading a grand Arab coalition to fight in Syria.

Not two weeks later, it seems Riyadh is keeping good on its word. According to the Turkish foreign minister, Saudi troops and fighter jets have already arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase and are preparing for operations in Syria. Also, Saudi sources speaking to Arabic media claim that the kingdom will run training exercises with its own forces alongside troops from Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and other countries in preparation for the fight against ISIS, the so-called Islamic State.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The idea of Saudi troops entering Syria is just as bad as Turkish troops entering Syria .... Turkey Wants Its Allies To Participate In A Ground Operation In Syria. More commentary here (Hat Tip jay for this link).

Update: Syria has indicated that it will fight any ground Saudi ground operation .... Damascus to fight back Saudi Arabia’s ground operation — Syrian ambassador (TASS), and the Islamic State is not worried .... Islamic State shrugs off any Saudi ground force in Syria (Reuters).

7 comments:

RRH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RRH said...


Picture this as Assad singing and playing the guitar. Substitute Saudi,Turkey or Yankee for Roper.

That's why it's a bad, really bad, idea for any of them to invade Syria.


https://vimeo.com/40617171

Don Bacon said...

Saudi troops are only of sacrificial worth -- see videos of Houthi (Yemeni) success against poorly trained Saudi units here.

jon said...

I think that with such a big muslim coalition the end goal is not Syria but Israel.

Jay Farquharson said...

What "big" Muslim Co-elition?

Turkey, and Saudi Arabia?

Both Israeli allies?

Saudi Arabia just downgraded it's deployment to Turkey, to 4 F-15's, which still hasn't happened.

RRH said...

They will never attack Israel. The Saudis are closer with her than they are with most Arabs. In fact, most of the Arabs I know call Saudis Jews!!!

Don Bacon said...

"Saudi troops and fighter jets have already arrived at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase"
This requires confirmation, with one report saying that four jets may be sent by the end of the month, and there needs to be something specific on troops.