‘KSA to Pitch in’ if US Sends Troops to Rid Syria of Assad
JEDDAH: Bashar Assad “will be removed, either through a political process or through military force,” said Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir in an interview to France 24 channel.
He asserted that the cease-fire was holding fairly well in Syria and that humanitarian access had improved in recent days.
However, Al-Jubeir repeated that Assad must leave power.
“The Syrian crisis will end and it will end without Bashar Assad. It will end with a country that is unified, that has a civil society government and that has equality. It could take six months, it could take three months or it could take three years,” he said.
“The choice is Bashar Assad’s. He will be removed, either through a political process or through military force”.
He added that Saudi Arabia would continue to push for more military support to the opposition. “We should provide the opposition with more weapons and more lethal weapons, including surface to air missile and more sophisticated anti-tank weapons so that we can change the balance of power on the ground,” he explained.
“If the United States sends ground troops into Syria to fight Daesh, Saudi Arabia would be prepared to send special forces alongside those troops, but we will not be sending troops unilaterally,” Al-Jubeir told Marc Perelman of France 24.
The Syrian people will not allow a man who is responsible for the murder of 400,000 people with displacement of 12 million people and the destruction of the country to remain in power, said Al-Jubeir.
Commenting on other regional crises, Al-Jubeir expressed optimism on the peace talks on Yemen.
“Now we want Yemen to move toward peace and reconstruction,” he said.
On Iran, he said he had not seen any change in the behavior of his neighboring country since the nuclear agreement, accusing Tehran of sowing chaos in the region. “We see Iran in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Kuwait, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Saudi Arabia!” he said.
“Iran is a threat to everyone. They have to change if they want to be a good neighbor to us.”
Al-Jubeir also clarified that Saudi Arabia does not have any exchanges with Israel on Iran.
(Source: ArabNews.com)