The White House reportedly supports the plan, which would let Washington assist Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen without deep US involvement
News Desk - The Cradle
According to the report, self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is seriously considering the request.
The Trump administration and US Central Command (CENTCOM) have been consulted and do not oppose the proposal in principle, the officials said.
Saudi Arabia currently employs Yemeni mercenaries in its fight against Yemen's Ansarallah-led armed forces.
The Syrian units under consideration reportedly include the Syrian military's 90th and 84th Divisions, the latter reportedly including extremist foreign fighters who fought under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“Sending Syrian troops could inject a religious dimension into the Yemen war and exacerbate the conflict,” Axios noted.
The Syrian army consists of Sunni extremist fighters from HTS, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, while Ansarallah is a Shia Zaydi Muslim movement.
HTS promotes extremist Salafi ideology that views Shia and Alawi Muslims as heretics who should be killed and their property stolen as war booty.
Trump has previously suggested sending extremist fighters from the Syrian army to Lebanon to fight in support of Israel against Hezbollah as Tel Aviv seeks to ethnically cleanse and annex south Lebanon.
Saudi mercenary forces backed by Saudi warplanes launched a massive ground operation over the weekend against the Ansarallah-led Yemeni government.
The offensive was designed to seize territory including the capital Sanaa and the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to reverse recent losses at the hands of the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), which recently captured the city of Mokha on the coast near Bab al-Mandab. Yemeni forces have also threatened Saudi control of the city of Taiz in southern Yemen.
A US official said the issue of deploying Syrian troops to Yemen was discussed during the meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and the Syrian president in Riyadh earlier this week.
President Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a former UN-designated terrorist and Islamic State in Iraq commander who was sent to Syria to depose the government of former president Bashar al-Assad as part of the CIA's Timber Sycamore operation starting in 2011.
Sharaa and HTS took power in Damascus in December 2024 after 14 years of war.
The US official said it is “highly likely” that Sharaa will accept the Saudi request.
In contrast, the Syrian president's media advisor, Ahmad Muwaffaq Zaidan, rejected the Axios report.
US officials view sending Syrian troops to Yemen as a way to support Saudi Arabia and strengthen the US relationship with the kingdom without deep direct US involvement in the Yemen war.
On 30 September, the Trump administration removed Syria from a list of countries that are not allowed to purchase or import US weaponry.
In a notice published in the Federal Register, the State Department said it was amending its International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to allow the sale of US weapons and munitions to the country.
The State Department will now consider arms sales requests from Syria on a case-by-case basis, and has also announced plans to reopen the US Embassy in Damascus after its closure 14 years ago.
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