The United States welcomes Saudi Arabia�s willingness to send ground forces into Syria to fight the Daesh jihadist group, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) � On Thursday, the Saudi embassy in�Washington said in�a Twitter message that the Saudi Ministry of�Defense stood ready to�deploy ground troops to�Syria to�aid in�the US-led international anti-Daesh coalition efforts.
�That kind of�news is very welcome.� I look forward to�discussing that with�the Saudi defense minister [Mohammad bin Salman] next week�� that and other kinds of�contributions that Saudi Arabia can make,� Carter said, as�quoted in�a press statement.


According to�Carter, the coalition�s representatives are due to�discuss the issue in�Brussels next week.
�So the reason why I'm going to�Brussels next week is to�bring the full weight of�the coalition behind�accelerating the defeat of�Daesh,� the defense secretary added.


Riyadh has been a nominal member of�the US-led coalition that has been launching airstrikes against�Daesh in�Syria since�September 2014, without�the permission of�Damascus or the United Nations. In December 2015, Saudi Arabia started its own Muslim 34-nation coalition to�fight Islamic extremism.

Daesh is a Sunni group, outlawed in�a number of�countries, including the United States and Russia.

By Sputnik