Saudi moves 'jets, troops' to Turkey
Turkey and Saudi Arabia could launch a ground operation against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said yesterday, as Russian prime minister said the simmering East-West tension has plunged the world into a "new Cold War”.
The coordinated plans by Riyadh and Ankara, who are pursuing an increasingly tight alliance, add a new element to the explosive situation in Syria where Russia has been backing a successful regime offensive against rebels.
In another development, Turkish artillery yesterday bombarded areas of Aleppo province in northern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The monitoring group's head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said Turkish shelling struck areas of Aleppo, including Minnigh, recently taken by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from Islamist rebels.
Britain's daily Independent reported that Saudi Arabia was sending troops and fighter jets to Turkey's Incirlik military base ahead of a possible ground invasion of Syria.
The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, confirmed the deployment in a statement to the Yeni Şafak newspaper yesterday.
“Saudi Arabia declared its determination against Daesh (the Arabic term for IS) by saying that they were ready to send both jets and troops,” Independent quoted his as saying.
“If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation from the land,” he added.
He confirmed that planes and military personnel were being sent to Incirlik, in Adana near the Syrian border, but said numbers had not been confirmed.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, on his part said Russia's intervention would not help Assad stay in power in an interview published today.
“There will be no Bashar al-Assad in the future,” he told a German newspaper.
Co-operation with Turkey could prove problematic if Saudi Arabia follows its definition of “terrorists” to include Kurdish fighters, who have been one of the most effective forces against Isis on the ground.
Cavusoglu's statement also raised the possibility of conflict between Turkey and Russia, which he accused of hitting the so-called Islamic State with only 12 per cent of its air strikes.
Ash Carter, the American defence secretary, said on Friday that he expected the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates to send commandos to help recapture IS' Syrian stronghold and de-facto capital of Raqqa.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are among Assad's foreign opponents who have been supplying selected rebel groups with weapons via a Turkey-based operation centres.
Some of the vetted groups, mainly part of the Free Syrian Army, have received military training overseen by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
In the wake of Saudi Arabia's proposal to send in ground troops on Thursday, the Russian Prime Minister claimed the move could spark a new world war.
Yesterday, Medvedev said that strains between Russia and the West over the Syria and Ukraine crises have plunged the world into a "new Cold War".
"Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against Nato as a whole, against Europe or against the US or other countries," Medvedev said in Munich.
Also speaking in Munich, US Secretary of State John Kerry complained that the vast majority of Russia's attacks in Syria were against "legitimate opposition groups" rather than IS jihadists.
His comments come after Assad defiantly told AFP in an exclusive interview published on Friday that he would recapture the whole of Syria and keep "fighting terrorism".
Assad also said he "doesn't rule out" that Turkey and Saudi Arabia would intervene militarily in Syria but said that his armed forces "will certainly confront it".
Saudi Arabia had already said earlier this month that it was ready to join any ground operation against IS. But this is the first time a top Turkish official has publicly raised the prospect, long the subject of speculation, of a joint ground incursion with the kingdom.
World powers on Friday announced an ambitious plan to stop fighting in Syria within a week, but doubts have emerged over its viability, especially because it did not include IS or al-Qaeda's local branch.
The 17-nation International Syria Support Group, which includes Turkey and Saudi Arabia, also agreed that "sustained delivery" of humanitarian aid would begin "immediately".
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