Saudi renews offer to send troops to stabilise Syria

Riyadh, April 18: Saudi foreign minister Adel alJubeir reaffirmed on Tuesday that the kingdom’s willingness to deploy troops to Syria as part of US- led efforts to stabilise the conflict- torn country.

“We are in discussions with the US and have been since the beginning of the Syrian crisis ( in 2011) about sending forces into Syria,” Jubeir said at a press conference in Riyadh with UN chief Antonio Guterres.

The comments were in response to a Wall Street Journal report on Monday that US President Donald Trump’s administration was seeking to assemble an Arab force, including troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to replace a US military contingent in Syria. The report follows weekend strikes by the United States, Britain and France against Syrian leader Bashar alAssad’s government that hit targets they said were linked to a state chemical weapons programme.

Jubeir emphasised that the proposal to send its troops as part of a broader international coalition was “not new”.

“We made a proposal to the ( previous US) Obama administration that if the US were to send forces... then Saudi Arabia would consider along with other countries sending forces as part of this contingent,” he said. Before the weekend’s Western strikes, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had indicated that the kingdom would back an international military action in Syria.