Riyadh not qualified to have role in Syria peace efforts: Damascus

Damascus says Saudi Arabia is not qualified to participate in efforts to resolve the four-and-a-half-year crisis gripping Syria, citing the Al Saud regime’s deadly aerial assaults in Yemen.

Speaking on the Syrian Ikhbariya TV on Thursday, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said that Riyadh cannot play a “productive” role in finding a political solution to the crisis in Syria as the kingdom is shedding the blood of people elsewhere.

Since late March, the Saudi regime has been engaged in a brutal military offensive against neighboring Yemen to pursue its own goals, including undermining the country’s Ansarullah movement and restoring to power former fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Zoubi’s comments came one day after Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Riyadh’s stance on Syria has not changed, claiming that the kingdom sees no role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any political transition in the crisis-hit Arab country.

The Syrian information minister lashed out at Jubeir and described him as a “tumor” and a “servant,” saying the Saudi minister and “his masters have been notorious for having the blood of Muslims and Arabs on their hands.”

Jubeir “who has no clue how diplomacy and politics work, should keep his mouth closed and keep his country out of a matter that is none of its business,” he added.

The tensions come as the international talks on the Syrian turmoil are expected to take place in the Austrian Capital city of Vienna on October 30. The negotiations will bring together about a dozen countries including Iran, Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia.

The Riyadh regime’s presence in the international event comes while it has been among the major supporters of Takfiri terror groups operating to topple the Syrian government over the past four years. The violence fueled by the foreign-backed terrorists has reportedly claimed over 250,000 lives so far.

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