Assad says sees risk of Turkey, Saudi Arabia invading Syria
Published time: 12 Feb, 2016 19:12
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad © SANA / Reuters
‘Aggressors to return home in coffins’: Syrian FM warns against foreign ground op
Riyadh has indeed expressed a desire to send ground troops to the country, should the US-led coalition agree to the move. On Friday, the country’s foreign minister said that Saudi Arabia’s goal was to remove Assad, confidently stating “
we will achieve it.”
Speaking at a security conference in Munich, FM Adel al-Jubeir called Assad the “
single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists in the region,” asserting that he must be removed from office if stability is to be restored.
“That’s our objective and we will achieve it,” he said.
“Unless and until there is a change in Syria, Daesh will not be defeated in Syria, period.”
However, Assad is equally confident that he can retake control of the whole of Syria, large swathes of which are currently under the control of opposition forces and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
“Regardless of whether we can do that or not, this is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation,” he said, adding that it “
makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part.”
Assad said he believes it is possible to “put an end to this problem in less than a year” if opposition supply routes from Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq are blocked.
Read more
Syria crisis plan: Cessation of hostilities, humanitarian airdrops, peace talks laid out in Munich
If such routes remain open, however, “t
he solution will take a long time and will incur a heavy price,” he added.
“
The main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” Assad said.
He noted that the Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo is aimed at cutting off that supply route. The Syrian government has been receiving air support from Moscow, its key ally.
Assad went on to say that he supports peace talks, but stressed that the Syrian government will not “
stop fighting terrorism.”
He blamed Europe for “
giving cover to terrorists in the beginning” and for the sanctions imposed on Syria, stating that the EU has been the “
direct cause for the emigration” of Syrians.
The interview, conducted at Assad’s Damascus office on Thursday and published on Friday, is the first the leader has given since the collapse of a new round of peace talks in Geneva earlier this month. Talks have officially been put on hold until February 25. On Friday, 17 nations taking part in talks in Munich agreed to an ambitious plan that would end hostilities in Syria with verifiable results within a week, revive the Geneva-3 peace talks, and immediately begin delivering humanitarian aid to civilians.
Syria has been the scene of a gruesome civil war since 2011, which has led to the deaths of more than 250,000 people and displaced more than 12 million, according to UN figures.
Assad says sees risk of Turkey, Saudi Arabia invading Syria — RT News
U.S. sees Saudi Arabia and UAE sending commandos to Syria
By Phil Stewart7 hours ago
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send special operations forces to Syria to help local opposition fighters in their drive to retake the city of Raqqa from Islamic State.
Carter, who has long sought greater participation of SunniArab allies in Syria, did not disclose how many commandos he expected them to deploy nor the timing of those deployments.
But he suggested they would play a major role taking back Raqqa, the Islamic State's defacto capital, from the militants.
"We’re going to try to give opportunities and power to ...particularly Sunni Arabs in Syria who want to re-seize their territory back from ISIL, especially Raqqa," Carter told reporters traveling with him in Brussels.
Carter made the remarks after talks with his UAE and Saudi counterparts on Friday and Thursday respectively.
Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria have helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claw back territory from rebelsfighting government forces, alarming Gulf Arab states who back the insurgents.
Saudi Arabia had concentrated its military efforts over the last year on the conflict in Yemen, where it is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf Arab forces battling Houthi fighters who control the capital, Sanaa.
But it appears to be widening its focus. Carter said on Thursday Saudi Arabia committed to expand its role in the air campaign and the United Arab Emirates said it would restart its participation.
Saudi Arabia and Gulf states took part on Thursday in the largest gathering so far of defense ministers from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which Carter hosted at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Carter said the group collectively approved a campaign plan that aims to recapture the two main Islamic State strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, as well as grappling with the group's spread beyond its self-declared caliphate.
That plan, however, does not include deployment of large-scale foreign ground forces to Iraq and Syria and Carter stressed that coalition commandos were meant to bolster local forces, not replace them.
"We're not looking to substitute for them, any more than we're looking to substitute for the Iraqi forces. But we are looking to enable them strongly and help them organize themselves," he said.
The United States has already deployed a small group of special operations forces to Syria and Carter said other allies, beyond Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were considering commando deployments.
"Some don't even like to acknowledge the operations of special forces, but there are a number of them. And we are the organiser of them," Carter said.
Asked whether the Saudis and UAE were already operating in Syria, Carter said: "No. They've had kind of liaisons there ... We're talking about mapping that up."
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
U.S. sees Saudi Arabia and UAE sending commandos to Syria - Yahoo News
