Saudi soldiers march during Abdullah's Sword military drill in Hafar al-Batin, near the border with Kuwait, April 29, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser)
On Feb. 4, Saudi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri announced that Saudi Arabia is now ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State (IS). Saudi Arabia is part of the international anti-IS coalition led by the United States since September 2014. However, when it launched the war in Yemen to fight the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels almost a year ago, its priorities shifted and its airstrikes on IS subsided. In December, it launched a new Muslim anti-IS coalition, but this, too, remains ambiguous as a strategy and may be interpreted as yet another attempt by the Saudi regime to seek Islamic backing against its rival and archenemy, namely Iran. It is important to understand why the Saudis announced they are now willing to venture into the troubled waters of Syria with ground troops, allegedly to fight IS.
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WNU Editor: I am sure that the Saudis are ready to fight in Syria. The questions that still need to be answered are .... how big of a commitment are they willing to deploy military forces into Syria, and if it is big, are they ready to accept the casualties and long term commitment that will arise. Looking at how they are operating in the war in Yemen .... my guess is that the Saudis are not going to fully commit a large number of military forces (probably only their own version of the special forces), and if the body-bags and blow-back becomes to big for them .... will quietly leave.