Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, warned Riyadh against the deployment of its troops to Syria, saying that it would ignite a major regional war. In a post in his social network account, General Rezaei predicted that in case of a potential encounter of Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria and the subsequent involvement of the US, a big regional war would engulf the Middle East, Tasnim News Agency reported. There is no doubt that after any such move by the Saudi government, which takes “crazy” measures, the entire region would burn in Saudi Arabia’s fire, Rezaei added. The general, however, reassured that Iran would be far from the flames of such a war. The remarks came after Riyadh on Thursday said it plans to send ground troops to Syria to ostensibly fight against the self-styled Islamic State terrorists. Soon after the announcement, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter hailed the Saudi offer to contribute to the US-led coalition and said, “That kind of news is very welcome.”
