Syria prepares to send 600 special forces to Saudi border

Syria is preparing to send an initial force of about 600 special forces fighters to Saudi Arabia in the coming week, according to three officials with knowledge of the plans who spoke to the Associated Press. Syrian military advisers are already deployed in the kingdom, where they have helped train Yemeni forces. No Syrian fighters have been sent into Yemen itself.

The arrangement reverses a decade of Saudi policy toward Damascus. Riyadh provided funds to Syrian rebel factions during the civil war; it is now recruiting the survivors of that war to hold its southern border. A delegation led by Khaled Khattab, commander of the 82nd Division, recently spent two weeks in Saudi Arabia, and 36 Syrian military officers toured a command and operations room in Jeddah staffed by Saudi and Yemeni officials, receiving briefings on the front lines and areas of operation.

The deployment answers a blunt question: why does a kingdom stocked with American fighter jets and missile defenses need foreign infantry? Saudi Arabia has been unable to defeat the Houthis in past rounds of conflict, its other allies have been reluctant to commit ground forces, and the rebels have launched direct and deadly attacks on Saudi territory. Fighting with the Houthis escalated this summer, months into a regional war that began in February with the American and Israeli attack on Iran. Last week the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that the Gulf states' massive arms spending and reliance on the United States had bought no protection — American bases in the region proved so vulnerable that allies now regard Washington as a strategic liability.

The price sits on the reconstruction ledger. During a visit to Riyadh by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the Saudi government agreed to lend Syria more than $400 million for rebuilding homes and basic infrastructure, and the two states signed a military cooperation agreement last week without publishing its details. Syria, notably, turned down proposals from President Donald Trump for its forces to intervene against the Houthis before accepting the Saudi invitation.

Syria is also negotiating entry into the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed in August by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. Two Syrian officials said the decision has been made but not publicly announced; a regional official said talks continue, with one concern being that Damascus might invoke the pact against Israel. Israeli forces have occupied a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad in December 2024, and al-Sharaa — who says he seeks no conflict with Israel — has called for their withdrawal.

On Saturday, Syria's state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed diplomat dismissing reports that Syrian forces were headed for Yemen: the agreement, he said, concerns only training Saudi troops. The 36 officers who toured the Jeddah operations room were briefed on every front line.