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Political Bluff? Why Saudi Arabia Will Not Invade Syria

© AFP 2023 / FAYEZ NURELDINESaudi army artillery fire shells towards Yemen from a post close to the Saudi-Yemeni border
Saudi army artillery fire shells towards Yemen from a post close to the Saudi-Yemeni border - Sputnik International
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Saudi Arabia has declared its readiness to take part in ground operations in Syria as part of an international coalition led by the United States. It is expected that the kingdom may send several thousand of its Special Forces soldiers, and their actions will be coordinated by Ankara.

According to Iranian political analyst and expert on the Middle East, Mosayeb Na'imi, there will be no result of the initiative by Saudi Arabia. In an exclusive interview with Sputnik Persia he said the following:

“The current Saudi initiative on Syria can be regarded as a joke. After all, from the beginning of the Syrian crisis, Saudi Arabia has spent a huge budget for arming and sending terrorists into the country. On the other hand, it has now been 10 months since Saudi Arabia has been carrying out air strikes on neighboring Yemen, but never daring to send ground troops.”

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The expert further said that as for Bahrain, the country cannot even restore order on its own territory.

“To pacify the increasingly frequent demonstrations the authorities of the island do not have enough military forces. Curiously, the United Arab Emirates while talking about sending their troops to Syria put forward a condition saying that the operation must be carried out only under strict supervision of the United States. Therefore, in the ranks of allies there is discord, distrust towards each other.”

According to Na’imi all these loud statements are just efforts by Riyadh to show that it still has at least some influence on the Syrian settlement.

“After all, after Russia intervened in Syria, huge military bases of militants and terrorists supported by Saudi Arabia were destroyed and that damaged the interests of Saudi Arabia. Right now the UK authorities are trying to exert pressure on the Syrian negotiations, to change the balance of power, which is clearly not in favor of the coalition, supported by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”

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The expert further said that the Saudi initiative will not be effective also because the kingdom has no qualified military forces.

“It has no such power; neither does it have a strong political will to send its troops to Syria. But, if suddenly Saudi Arabia gets involved, it will lead to a new war instead of curbing of the old. Therefore, I predict that words will only remain words.”

The expert mentioned that these statements are nothing more than just a political bluff and an attempt to get a better position on Syrian negotiations.

“Saudi Arabia is extremely dissatisfied with the Syrian army’s successes on the fronts against terrorists. The representatives of the Saudi coalition have nothing to do but wage information warfare,” Na’imi concluded.

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