WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said it stands ready to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight the Daesh, which has been outlawed by many countries, including the United States and Russia.
"We obviously have some questions about it [the Saudi proposal]. We are going to continue to talk to the Saudis about exactly what the parameters are here," Kirby said on Friday. "We just need to learn a little bit more what this proposal is."
The United States has repeatedly stated that there is no military solution to the conflict Syria, and it must be solved diplomatically, the spokesman noted.
“But when we talk about no military solution, we are talking about no military solution to the civil war, to the fight but the opposition against the [Assad] regime, we are not talking about the efforts to go after Daesh,” Kirby explained.
White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said in a briefing on Friday that Washington welcomes the readiness of Saudi Arabia to deploy ground troops to fight the Daesh.
Earnest said the commitments will be discussed in greater detail by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter with his coalition counterparts in Brussels next week.
Riyadh has been a nominal member of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, and in December 2015, Saudi Arabia started its own Muslim 34-nation coalition to fight Islamic extremism.
