Syria May Send Troops to Saudi Arabia to Fight Houthis — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Syria may deploy troops to help Saudi Arabia fight Yemen's Houthis, according to a US official and a Syrian defense official, with options ranging from defensive aid to offensive operations alongside Saudi-backed Yemeni forces.
- Houthi strikes this week killed one person at Riyadh's airport and two at Abha airport in the southwest; the Iran-aligned group claimed responsibility Thursday for a ballistic missile attack on King Khalid International Airport.
- A Syrian diplomat said any cooperation would proceed only through official bilateral channels, emphasizing that Syria's primary focus remains domestic recovery from its own civil war.
- Turkey announced Wednesday it would send mainly defensive and technical support — military equipment, intelligence sharing, and weapons systems — to Saudi Arabia, while Pakistan has flown cargo planes of military equipment to Aden and deployed troops inside Saudi Arabia.
- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan committed this summer under the Mecca pact to mutual defense, though Ankara still needs to ratify the treaty internally.
- Houthis seized stretches of the Red Sea coast last month including the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait after the 2022 ceasefire collapsed, and fighting has since displaced 200,000 people in the poorest Arab state.
Why it matters: The widening circle of states drawn into Yemen — Syria weighing troops, Turkey sending equipment, Pakistan already deploying soldiers inside Saudi Arabia — converts a renewed civil war into a multi-state coalition effort against Houthis who now control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a waterway more critical for Gulf oil traffic after Iranian disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz.
Ask SkimNews
