In comments that came with criticism of the ongoing air war against ISIS, Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri offered his nation’s troops to participate in a ground war against ISIS in Syria, so long as it involved a “consensus” of the US coalition.
Gen. Asiri, who also serves as spokesman for the Saudi war in Yemen, insisted that the country views airstrikes as “not ideal” in the war against ISIS, and has been pushing for the rest of the coalition to go along with the ground operations plan.
The US State Department refused to comment on the specifics of the proposal, with spokesman John Kirby insisted he “hadn’t seen” the Saudi comments, The US has deployed a limited number of ground troops into northeast Syria already, but in non-combat roles.
A lot of the members of the coalition are already bristling at US calls for more involvement in the war in Iraq though, which means it’s probably going to be hard to sell them on the idea of commuting combat troops to a full-scale ground war in Syria.
