Iran mocks

S Arabia’s offer to send ground troops to Syria

DUBAI: The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday Saudi Arabia lacked the courage to go through with a plan to send ground troops to Syria, and warned they would be wiped out if they went in.

Mohammad Ali Jafari’s blunt words on the Fars news agency were Iran’s first official reaction to a statement from its regional rival Saudi Arabia this week that it was ready to join ground operations in Syria if a US-led military alliance decided to start them.

"(The Saudis) have made such a claim but I don’t think they are brave enough to do so. Even if they send troops, they would be definitely defeate it would be suicide," Jafari was quoted as saying.

Iran has already sent forces to Syria to back its ally President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s five-year-old civil war. Washington and its allies have backed rebels fighting Assad and say he must eventually step down.

After Saudi Arabia and Turkey pledged to commit ground forces to fight ISIS in Syria,Iran mocked Riyadh's offer as saying that they will be defeated by Iranian forces who are supporting Syrian president Bashar al Assad .

Turkey and Saudi already belong to a US-led coalition which officially has 65 members. It has been bombing IS targets in Syria and Iraq, as well as training local forces to fight the extremists.

The Pentagon late on Friday welcomed Saudi Arabia's move as the United States has for weeks been calling on partners in the 65-member coalition bombing ISIS in Iraq and Syria to contribute more, and last month Defense Secretary Ashton Carter chastised some countries for doing “nothing at all.”