MUNICH (AP) – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Friday defended his country’s foreign policy and its stance in Yemen and Syria, insisting that the kingdom has no ambitions beyond its borders. His statement comes on heels of Saudi Arabia’s intentions to invade Syria, which he’ll likely to discuss with the U.S. According to Yahoo News, when he was asked about proposals by some Arab countries to enter the conflict under a United States command, Medvedev said, “that would be bad because ground offensives usually lead to wars becoming permanent”.
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This story has been corrected to remove reference to “a new world war”, which was a mistranslation. It could last years or even decades.
That includes the kingdom’s interests in Syria, where Saudi-backed rebel groups are now battling Iran-backed Shiite militias and Hezbollah forces loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United Nations has had several disputes with Saudi Arabia over aid access in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population is facing dire food shortages.
Saudi Arabia has the strongest military in the Gulf, with upwards of 150,000 servicemen operating their ground force, Air Force and naval force.
“The [US defense] secretary thanked the deputy crown prince for participating in today’s meeting of [NATO] coalition defense ministers, and for Saudi Arabia’s decision to increase its military contributions, especially the Kingdom’s offer to expand its role in the air campaign”, Peter Cook, Carter’s spokesman, said in statement. “We’re still assessing all of what they want to do”.
Assiri also said that if Riyadh’s main regional rival, Iran, is serious about combating terrorism in the region it must stop supporting “terrorism” in both Syria and Yemen.
He criticised Saudi Arabia for trying to exclude Iran from peace talks.
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At the Munich talks, the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) created two task forces to achieve the goals of the plan agreed upon by all countries involved in the negotiations. There is the danger that any Saudi-Turkish ground assault would be in association with local opposition fighters grouped under the umbrella organisation Jaish al-Fatah; this is supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia and is led by the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, and by the ideologically similar Ahrar al-Sham.
