Turkey, Saudi could launch anti-IS ground operation in Syria: Ankara

Saudi Arabia has resumed its participation in air strikes against Islamic State in recent weeks and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday welcomed its commitment to expand its role.

“Unfortunately, not enough work has been done to combat the flow of terrorists, foreign terrorists, from Turkey to Syria to Iraq”, he said. He told reporters that he hoped aid could roll in “once we have all the access that we need”.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev rejected accusations today that his country’s forces have bombed civilians in Syria, saying this was “just not true”.

Syria President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since Friday, the Russians stepped up their airstrikes against rebels that fight Assad’s army in Syria.

The meeting of foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group ended with an agreement on the “cessation of hostilities” within a week and the provision of immediate humanitarian aid to besieged towns and villages.

This back-and-forth over Syria among outside powers is hardly new. “What we’re seeing is shameful and morally unacceptable”. Turkey refuses to open the border.

“I want to make it clear to all of you”, Kerry said, “The United States isn’t sitting across the pond, saying this is your problem, not ours….” Zarif said there was room to identify common challenges, particularly jihadists such as the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra. The US and Russian Federation are suffering a deterioration in relations elsewhere in the world, such as in eastern Europe, and have risked escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

It remains unclear whether fighters in Syria will adhere to a truce. “If a decision is taken to send in special units against IS, Saudi Arabia is ready to take part”.

There was no immediate statement Friday on the Munich agreement from Syrian officials.

Government forces, aided by a Russian bombing campaign, are trying to encircle rebels in Syria’s largest city Aleppo and cut off their supply route to Turkey.

Iraqi Shia militias and fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah are also fighting the Syrian opposition.

Also in the Aleppo region, which has taken centre-stage in the conflict, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched a two-pronged attack on Tal Rifaat, one of the remaining rebel bastions north of Aleppo city, the Observatory said. Some European leaders have said that the administration fails to grasp the seriousness of the fissures that the influx have opened in post-war European unity. On Saturday, Syrian government forces captured another village near Aleppo. They also advanced in the southern province of Daraa that borders Jordan. Immediately after the United Nations suspended the latest round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva on 3 February, Saudi Arabia offered to compliment America’s airstrike coalition with a ground invasion of Syria.

With Saudi Arabia entering the fray, the Islamic State might find soon find itself in its tightest spot yet.

Zero Hedge reports, as we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the Turks are now set to invade. “Of course that’s not something the United States can do”.