| Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (Image: RT) |
Reuters - DUBAI:
Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was ready to participate in any ground
operations in Syria if the U.S.-led alliance decides to start such operations,
an adviser to the Saudi defence minister said.
"The
kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition
(against Islamic State) may agree to carry out in Syria," Brigadier
General Ahmed Asseri, who is also the spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab
coalition in Yemen, told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV in an interview.
Asseri said
Saudi Arabia had been an active member of the U.S.-led coalition that had been
fighting Islamic State in Syria since 2014, and had carried out more than 190
aerial missions.
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.
"If there
was a consensus from the leadership of the coalition, the kingdom is willing to
participate in these efforts because we believe that aerial operations are not
the ideal solution and there must be a twin mix of aerial and ground
operations," Asseri said.
Asked about the
comments at a briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the
coalition was generally supportive of having partners contribute more in the
fight against Islamic State but he had not seen the Saudi proposal. "I
would not want to comment specifically on this until we've had a chance to
review it," he said.
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