UAE set for IS groundfight – ‘Field marshals’ McCain, Graham call for 100,000 troops

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ABU DHABI, Nov 30, (Agencies): The United Arab Emirates has said it is ready to commit ground troops against jihadists in Syria and described Russian air strikes in the country as attacks on a “common enemy”. Quoted by the official WAM news agency on Monday, Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the UAE would “participate in any international effort demanding a ground intervention to fight terrorism”. “Regional countries must bear part of the burden” of such an intervention, he said during a Sunday discussion on Syria.

The UAE is a member of the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the jihadist Islamic State group in territory under its control in Syria and Iraq. As the jihadists have held out against more than a year of strikes and launched operations abroad including the Nov 13 attacks in Paris, there have been growing calls for the anti-IS intervention to expand to a ground force.

Russia launched its own strikes in Syria in late September and Iran has reportedly sent hundreds of troops to support President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Critics — including in the West and Sunni Arab Gulf nations — have accused Russia of targeting moderate rebel forces as well as jihadists.

In the UAE’s first official reaction to the Russian strikes, Gargash said “we agree that nobody will be upset by the Russian bombardment of DAESH or al-Qaeda as it targets a common enemy.” DAESH is an Arabic acronym for IS.

Gargash also suggested the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen — which has seen Arab countries including the UAE send ground troops against Iran-backed rebels — could be “an alternative model” to Western intervention in the region. “The global strategy to fight terrorism is no longer fruitful or enough,” he said.

On Sunday, US senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham called for 100,000 foreign soldiers, most from Sunni regional states but also including Americans, to fight IS in Syria. Both McCain, the chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and Graham, one of its members, sharply criticised current US strategy as insufficient and unsuccessful in defeating the jihadists.

That strategy has consisted of carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria in support of local ground forces, which have also received weapons and training. “I think 100,000 would be (the) total requirement,” McCain told journalists in Baghdad when asked about the size of the anti-IS force he and Graham were advocating for Syria. “That would not be hard for Egypt; it would be hard for Saudis, it would be hard for some of the smaller countries,” but Turkey could also provide forces, McCain said. Saudi Arabia is already involved in a war in Yemen, while Egypt is battling an insurgency and Turkey is more concerned with Kurdish rebels than IS. The force would also include some 10,000 American soldiers “providing capability the Arabs don’t possess,” said Graham, adding: “When’s the last time an Arab army’s manoeuvered?” The two senators also called for the number of American forces in Iraq to be increased to around 10,000.

That figure would include special forces to conduct “more of the raids you saw not long ago,” Graham said. American special forces accompanied Kurdish troops on an operation in Iraq last month during which one US soldier was killed. “This is different than the last two wars,” said Graham, referring to the 14- year war in Afghanistan and the nearly nine-year conflict in Iraq, during which the group that became IS was founded. “This time (it would) be a large regional army with a small Western component. The last two wars have been large Western components with a very small regional force,” he said. But even if this force were formed and defeated IS, it would then have to occupy part of Syria, spelling another potentially lengthy deployment of American ground troops in the Middle East.

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