Damascus has not sent its army to Yemen to fight the Houthis - as AP reported, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaybani said.
He emphasized that the Syrian authorities have no such intentions in the foreseeable future. "Any military action outside our borders will surely be announced and discussed publicly. It will not be carried out secretly," the agency quotes him as saying.
Meanwhile, AP previously reported that Syria is going to send the first group of 600 special forces to Saudi Arabia. The assumption is that these fighters will be deployed on the Saudi border with Yemen, and later they may be involved in operations against the Houthis who are already in Yemen.
Recall that earlier Arab information sources reported that Syrian fighters would be transferred to Saudi territory, where they could participate in battles against the Yemeni rebels - the Houthi movement (Ansarullah, known as the Houthis).
In turn, the AP news agency, citing sources, reports that Syrian military advisers have already been deployed in Saudi Arabia. However, they are not yet in use in Yemen.
According to the agency's interlocutor, the initial delegation will consist of 600 Syrian special forces soldiers. They are expected in Saudi Arabia during the next week. The source noted that Riyadh insisted that the fighters be Syrian citizens. Foreigners who arrived in Syria during the civil war will not be stationed on Saudi territory.
The source added that a Syrian delegation headed by Division 82 commander Khaled Khatab recently visited Saudi Arabia for two weeks. The purpose of the trip is to assess the situation.
A second Syrian official said: 36 Syrian military experts visited the command and operations center in Jeddah. There they got to know the situation on the front lines. It is assumed that Syrian forces will not operate in Yemen.