Key facts
- Two Syrian military sources said scores of military personnel went from Syria to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks.
- A senior US official said Syrian advisers and training teams are helping train Saudi and Yemeni units inside the kingdom.
- A senior Syrian diplomat said any suggestion of military deployments at this stage is premature and Syria's focus remains internal security.
- A senior Saudi official said expertise sharing with Syria is mainly to restructure Syrian forces, and joint training exercises are under way.
- The senior US official said Washington urged Damascus to move cautiously, warning a deployment risked widening the war.
- The Saudi-Syrian deal signed on Wednesday was a broad framework for military cooperation, a senior Syrian diplomat said.
Syria is aiding Riyadh with military advice and training and has sent a limited number of military personnel to the kingdom, two Syrian military sources and a senior US official told Reuters, as Saudi Arabia comes under attack by Yemen's Houthis.
The two Syrian sources, who said they had direct knowledge of the matter, said scores of military personnel had gone from Syria to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. They said advisory and training work was involved, but that their mandate could be broader. The senior US official said advisers and training teams from Syria were travelling to Saudi Arabia to help train Saudi and Yemeni units inside the kingdom to improve their combat effectiveness.
A senior Syrian diplomat said "any suggestion of military deployments at this stage is premature", and that Syria's focus remained on internal security, protecting its borders and reconstruction. The diplomat said a Syrian-Saudi defense cooperation deal signed on Wednesday "specifically includes advisory support, training and exchange of expertise".
A senior Saudi official told Reuters that ongoing expertise sharing with Syria was "mainly to restructure the Syrian forces ... but that doesn't mean also our Syrian partners don't help us in their combat experience regarding fighting militias". Joint training exercises were under way and more were planned in both security and defense, the official said.
Saudi Arabia and Syria signed the defense pact on Wednesday during a visit to Riyadh by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, his second meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in less than a month. No details were announced. The senior Syrian diplomat described the deal as a "broad framework for military cooperation" among other agreements covering sectors including finance and agriculture.
The Saudi Fund for Development signed six agreements with Syria's Finance Ministry on Wednesday for concessional development loans worth over $403 million to support development and service sectors in Syria.
Washington has urged Damascus to move cautiously, the senior US official said, adding that any Syrian deployment to help in the Yemen war risked embroiling the country in the wider war in the region. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Syrian Defence Ministry, the US State Department, Yemen's Saudi-backed government or the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia has been in worsening hostilities with the Iran-allied Houthis since July, when the Yemen war was reignited by the wider conflict in the Middle East. Since then the Houthis have seized territory from Yemeni government control in some areas while the government has made small gains in others, and have fired missiles at Saudi airports and oil facilities while Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in support of its Yemeni allies.
Turkey on Thursday ratified a defense pact signed in Mecca in August between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, clearing the way for Ankara to send military support to Riyadh. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, speaking at a conference in Bahrain, said discussions were under way to study Syria's entry into the Mecca pact.