US-Saudi policy in Syria has failed: Analyst

Saudi Arabia’s extravagant campaign to cause chaos in Syria has failed, says an analyst in London, arguing that the only way for Riyadh to save face is to back peace plans led by Iran and other “genuine allies” of Damascus.

Adam Garrie, a political writer and activist, made the remarks in reaction to reports that US President Donald Trump had asked Saudi King Salman for $4 billion to spend on advancing Washington’s objectives in Syria.

Those objectives are more or less shared by Washington’s closest regional allies, particularly the Riyadh regime, US media reported Friday.

“The war in Syria, the war in Iraq and events throughout the wider world, including the scandal of Donald Trump recognizing [Jerusalem] al-Quds as the capital of the Zionist entity, all of it has reduced the influence of Riyadh tremendously,” Garrie argued.

“Everything that they have tried to do in the region in terms of influencing foreign policy has absolutely failed,” he added.

“In Syria it has been a total flop of a disgrace posing wild anti-government coalition,” he said, noting that what Riyadh had achieved in Syria was in many ways similar to the outcome of its failed three-year military campaign against Yemen, which has killed over 13,000 civilians.

One thing the war on Yemen has thought Riyadh is that spending money does not necessarily spell success. This, he said, helps better understand why the Saudi strategy has failed in Syria.

PressTV-Trump asked Saudi king $4bn for Syria goals: Report

US President Donald Trump reportedly asked Saudi King Salman for $4 billion to spend on advancing Washington’s objectives in Syria, which Riyadh also shares.

“You can’t just throw money at an issue and have it happen the way you want it,” he said. “You have to actually win the hearts and minds of people by creating something that resembles a stable society.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been able to do exactly that with the help of “genuine allies” Iran and Russia, Garrie said.

“The Saudis and their coalition of terrorists have not been able to achieve that in Syria,” he continued.

According to the analyst, another major miscalculation by the Saudis was buying into Trump’s policies.

“Donald trump constantly talks about the need to save money while he is doing the opposite so he is outsourcing asking the king of the Wahhabi kingdom to spend his money but I think that all of the players in Washington and Riyadh will realize that they are wasting their money,” he further explained.

The war in Syria had largely been settled, Garried said, arguing that American and the Saudis would be better off dropping their current policies and supporting peace efforts lead by Iran, Russia and Turkey.

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