Saudi Arabia's Readiness to Deploy Military Forces to Syria

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister, said on Tuesday that his country is ready to send its military forces to Syria alongside the U.S.-led military coalition. The Foreign Minister stated, "We have been in dialogue with the U.S. since the beginning of the crisis in Syria and have raised the issue of sending military forces to Syria." Adel al-Jubeir made these remarks in Riyadh during a joint press conference with Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, saying, "We also proposed during Barack Obama's presidency that if necessary, we would send our military forces to Syria." The statements from the Saudi Foreign Minister refer to a report published in the Wall Street Journal indicating that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, is forming a military coalition of Arab countries for presence in Syria. Adel al-Jubeir mentioned, "Currently, discussions are focused on what type of forces would be sent and where they would come from to be stationed in eastern Syria. Discussions are still ongoing." On Monday of this week, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokesperson, stated that Donald Trump wants the withdrawal of American forces from Syria, although no specific timeline for withdrawal has been announced. An official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the U.S. is considering deploying forces in areas that were previously under the control of ISIS or the Islamic State and have since been liberated. The report states that prior to the U.S. military operations in Syria, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, had expressed a desire for Saudi forces to also be part of this coalition. According to Reuters, some observers have noted that given Saudi Arabia's ongoing operations in Yemen for the past three years, it seems unlikely that they would want to be involved in other areas. However, Saudi Arabia has stated it is willing to pursue an active presence in Syria as part of the coalition alongside the U.S. In December of last year, Adel al-Jubeir stated that Saudi Arabia supports the military coalition of Muslim countries in West Africa and provides logistical, intelligence, and training assistance to this coalition.