On Monday, a commander in the National Army, Mustafa Sijiri, levied harsh criticisms at Saudi Arabia for their recent positions on Syria.
Sijiri said in a series of tweets that: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today is taking a position towards Syria that does not accord with its status on a humanitarian and moral level. The truth is that it is impossible to understand the decision to stop aid for the Syrian people, who are in the direst circumstances, while northern Syria is being subjected to a genocide in an attempt to bury the Syrian struggle and to crush Arab Sunnis in Syria.”
Sijiri added: “At a time when we are seeing an influx of aid to separatist groups with a dirty history of displacement and demographic change against ‘Syrian Arabs’ from the area, everything that is happening cannot be understood except in the context of Syria and its people being sacrificed to annoy Turkey, in childish manoeuvres—and we will all pay the price.”
The commander in the National Army said that: “The absence of the Kingdom’s voice today cannot be understood except in the context of tacit approval, if not that, then Russian manoeuvres in Idleb came in coordination with some Arab countries.”
He added: “The clear truth is that they want to get Turkey out by unleashing the hand of the Russians, who will turn against them and pursue its own interests rather than theirs at any future deal with the Turks.”
He said: “The Kingdom has stopped aid to the Syrian people without any preliminaries. Our people today are still being subjected to a genocide in an attempt to bury any chance to maintain the geographic area where there could be Arab Sunnis, after dividing the sects and the national separatists with foreign support.”
Sijiri criticized the visit by the Saudi State Minister, Thamer al-Sabhan, to the Syrian Democratic Forces areas in Deir ez-Zor two days earlier, saying that it was, “support for separatist terrorist groups and an insult to the blood of the martyrs and to the thousands of Arab tribes and families that have been forcibly displaced.”
In closing, Sijiri called on King Salman Abdelaziz to take a historic position towards the Syrians and said that, “the solution starts with aid and support for Arab Sunnis, so that they can take their natural role and not defiantly punish Turkey.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman said in an interview with the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Riyadh was working with friendly countries to achieve aims including the defeat of ISIS and to prevent terrorist groups from returning, and dealing with the destabilizing Iranian influence in Syria, and using available means to achieve a political transition in accordance with Resolution 2254 which preserves Syrian unity.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
