page_title: Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War
section_title: Saudi Arabia
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War / Support for Syrian opposition / Arab League / Saudi Arabia
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with King Salman of Saudi Arabia after arriving at Diriyah Farm outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 24, 2015, for a bilateral meeting and a broader session with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayif, and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most parties involved in the war in Syria receive various types of support from foreign countries and entities based outside Syria. The ongoing conflict in Syria is widely described as a series of overlapping proxy wars between the regional and world powers, primarily between the US and Russia as well as between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
  The Syrian Ba'athist government is politically and militarily supported by Iran and Russia, and actively supported by the Lebanese Hezbollah group, the Syrian-based Palestinian group PFLP-GC, and others. Since 30 September 2015, Russia, the only foreign power that has its military assets openly and legally stationed in Syria, wages an intensive air campaign against anti-government forces in Syria, on the side of and at the request of the Syrian government.
context_section_description: The Financial Times reported in May 2013 that Saudi Arabia was becoming a large provider of arms to the rebels. Since the summer of 2013, Saudi Arabia has emerged as the main group to finance and arm the rebels. Saudi Arabia has financed a large purchase of infantry weapons, such as Yugoslav-made recoil less guns and the M79 Osa, an anti-tank weapon, from Croatia via shipments shuttled through Jordan. The weapons began reaching rebels in December 2012 which allowed rebels' small tactical gains this winter against the army and militias loyal to Assad. This was to counter shipments of weapons from Iran to Assad's forces.
  Bashar al-Assad pointed at Saudi Arabia as the major supporter of terrorists and "leading the most extensive operation of direct sabotage against all the Arab world".
  In May 2015, The Independent reported that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were "focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest". The Army of Conquest reportedly includes an Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, which had been declared a terrorist organisation by the United States.
  In October 2015, Saudi Arabia delivered 500 U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles to anti-Assad rebels. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the weapons would "certainly fall into the hands of terrorist organizations".
  In mid-December 2015, in the wake of the two rounds of the Vienna talks, Saudi Arabia hosted a conference of Syria's political and armed opposition factions that was intended to come to an agreement on a common position from which to negotiate with the government of Bashar al-Assad. The meeting, that did not include the major Kurdish factions in Syria, produced a statement of principles to guide peace talks with the government; it said inter alia that president Assad would be allowed to stay until a transitional government was formed. The meeting decided to set up a "Higher Negotiations Authority" to direct the opposition's participation in the proposed talks with the regime early in 2016; that leadership body is to remain based in Riyadh, giving the Saudis a ready handle on it. Shortly afterwards, the Saudis announced the formation of a military alliance of Muslim countries to fight international terrorism; about 30 Muslim states (all of them Sunni-majority nations) were reported to join the alliance, including Egypt and Turkey. The coalition was seen by Russia and Iran as aimed at reinforcing Saudi Arabia′s leadership and countering their efforts in the region, yet meaningless in practical terms.
  In early February 2016, a Saudi military official announced, ″The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIL) may agree to carry out in Syria.″ Saudi sources elaborated that the putative deployment of Saudi special forces could be carried out in coordination with Turkey.
caption: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with King Salman of Saudi Arabia after arriving in Saudi Arabia for meetings about Syria, 24 October 2015
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