Russia Warns Saudis: Deploying Ground Troops in Syria Would Unleash ‘A New World War’

February 13th, 2016

Via: National Post:

Gaziantep, Turkey — Russia on Thursday night warned of “a new world war” in Syria after Persian Gulf states threatened to send in ground forces to the conflict.

Foreign and defence ministers of the leading nations backing different factions in Syria met in Munich and Brussels Thursday following the collapse of the latest round of peace talks.

Both Russia and the United States demanded ceasefires in the civil war so the fight could be concentrated against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but each nation on its own, conflicting, terms.

The Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, staged their own intervention, saying they were committed to sending in ground troops. Their favoured rebel groups have been badly hit by Russian air raids and driven back by Iranian-supplied pro-regime troops. They said their declared target was Isil.

But the presence of troops from Gulf states which have funded the Syrian rebels would be taken as a hostile act by the Assad regime and its backers, and a sign that they were staking their claim to a say in the final settlement.

Russia issued a stark warning of the potential consequences.

“The Americans and our Arab partners must think well: Do they want a permanent war?” Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, told Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper. “It would be impossible to win such a war quickly, especially in the Arab world, where everybody is fighting against everybody.

“All sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table instead of unleashing a new world war.”

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