According to Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, his nation, along with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain are engaged in discussions about the possibility of sending ground troops, particularly special forces, into Syria to fight ISIS.
Jubeir says he believes it is not currently clear if troops are needed, but that it would be “in the next few weeks,” and that the Saudis in particular are have “not excluded” any possibility. The proposal was couched as being a mirror to recent US deployments of special forces into Syria.
Though the US troops are deployed in Hasakeh, likely embedding with the Kurds, it is unclear where Saudi forces would embed, as their primary allies in Syria are Islamist factions like Ahrar al-Sham with limited territory of their own.
Another potential complicating factor for a Saudi special forces operation is the ongoing war in Yemen, in which large numbers of Saudi and other GCC troops are presently engaged. Indeed, the Saudi special forces commander was killed only yesterday in a missile strike in Yemen.
Adel al-Jubeir is delusional, a bully and a coward! Why didn't he use his troops to protect Palestinians from Israel mass murder and land theft
It is hypocritical on Saudi Arabia’s part to claim that it is now going to send troops to fight ISIS. Since the start of the Syrian rebellion in March 2011, Saudi Arabia alongside Qatar and Turkey aided and abetted the very jihadists that they now claim they want to fight. Saudi Arabia and Qatar provided money and arms to al Qaeda groups and Islamists, including American made arms. They also encouraged and help to bring Islamist fighters from around the globe to go to Syria and fight the government. Turkey allowed the jihadists to cross over its border and bought oil from ISIS.
If Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Kingdoms do send troops, it is in response to their exposure as suppliers of radical Islam. Also, they will use this as a ruse to expand their involvement in the Syrian rebellion to help the jihadists destroy what is left of the Syrian state.