Iran has played down reports that Saudi Arabia will be sending thousands of its soldiers to take part in ground operations in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIS) as part of a U.S.-led coalition, saying it is "a bluff and a psychological war."
Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, Iranian deputy chief of staff, said the proposal may already be too late given the scores of victory achieved by the Syrian army and the popular forces against the extremists fighting in Syria.
"Today, with the victories of the Syrian army and the popular forces, they want to send troops to Syria, but it is a bluff and a psychological warfare,'' Jazayeri said, according to WND.
"Saudi Arabia has used everything at its disposal in the Syrian front, and so far they have failed not only in Syria but also in Yemen,'' he added.
Iranian political analyst and expert on the Middle East, Mosayeb Nai'imi also expressed doubt there will be a result of the initiative by Saudi Arabia, Sputnik reported.
"The current Saudi initiative on Syria can be regarded as a joke. After all, from the beginning of the Syrian crisis, Saudi Arabia has spent a huge budget for arming and sending terrorists into the country. On the other hand, it has now been 10 months since Saudi Arabia has been carrying out airstrikes on neighbouring Yemen, but never daring to send ground troops,'' the expert said.
According to Nai'mi, the Saudi initiative will ''not be effective'' because the kingdom has no qualified forces. "It has no such power; neither does it have a strong political will to send its troops to Syria.''
The analysts said the Saudi statements "are nothing more than just a political bluff'' and an attempt to get a better position on Syrian negotiations. "All these loud statements are just efforts by Riyadh to show that it still has at least some influence on the Syrian settlement.''
Jazayeri said if Saudi Arabia pushes through with its plan to send troops to Syria to fight the ISIS, it is inevitable that the Kingdom's Sunni forces could finally come face to face with Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces already in Syria.
The two countries have for years been waging a series of proxy wars, backing opposite forces in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, reports said.
