US senators in talk Syrian rebel training in Saudi Arabia
John McCain meets with top Gulf officials about training Syrian rebels; peace summit prospects seem slim.
A delegation of US senators led by John McCain has met with Saudi Arabia's crown prince in the kingdom, where talks focused on the training of Syrian rebels.
A message on the official Twitter feed for McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said that the US delegation also met Saturday with the head of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed al-Jarba, and the commander of Saudi Arabia's training and equipment program. They also met in Qatar with the country's emir.
In #KSA
delegation met w/ #Syrian
Opposition Coalition Pres Ahmed Jarba & commander of Saudi Train & Equip program pic.twitter.com/gIXn5MPgHn
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) ינואר 18, 2015
Saudi Crown Prince @HRHPSalman
meets with US Senate delegation led by @SenJohnMcCain
in Riyadh today —SPA pic.twitter.com/daLU17qpbd
— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) ינואר 17, 2015
Saudi Arabia is part of a US-led coalition conducting airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State group.
Interesting discussion at Friday majlis hosted by HRH Prince Khalid bin Bandar, attended by leaders from across #KSA
pic.twitter.com/djZmhcTwUN
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) ינואר 17, 2015
On Friday, the Pentagon said that as many as 1,000 US troops and trainers would be sent to training sites in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to help arm and train select Syrian rebels.
Meanwhile, a Russian initiative to host peace talks this month between the Syrian government and its opponents appears to be unraveling as prominent Syrian opposition figures shun the prospective negotiations amid deep distrust of Moscow and concerns the talks hold no chance of success.
The faltering effort suggests that even after four years and at least 220,000 people killed, the antagonists in Syria's civil war are far from burning themselves out and will likely keep fighting for a more decisive battlefield advantage before any real talks can take place.
The planned meetings in Moscow, scheduled to start Jan. 26, would be the first on Syria since a UN-sponsored conference in Geneva collapsed early last year after making no headway.
The United States and its allies conducted 29 airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq in a 24-hour period, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Saturday.
Sixteen strikes around seven Iraqi cities destroyed vehicles, buildings, equipment and fighting positions, as well as hitting units belonging to Islamic State, which is trying to establish a caliphate in the Middle East, the task force said.
