Riyadh has moral duty of helping Syria militants: Saudi FM

“Saudi Arabia will do everything in its capacity” in Syria, said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Monday.
 
    “We cannot bring ourselves to remain silent. Morally there is a duty,” he added.
 
 
The Saudi minister made the remarks during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
 
Both chief diplomats also reiterated that Washington and Riyadh would boost their support for the armed groups fighting in Syria in a news conference following the meeting.
 
Saudi Arabia is widely believed to be supplying weapons to the militants in Syria.
 
On February 26, The New York Times reported that Riyadh had recently purchased large cargos of infantry and heavy weapons from Croatia and, through Jordan, funneled them to militants fighting against the Syrian government.
 
“Both Ukrainian-made rifle cartridges that had been purchased by Saudi Arabia and Swiss-made hand grenades that had been provided to the United Arab Emirates were found by journalists to be in rebel possession,” The Times added.
 
In January, Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief, also called for sending heavy weapons such as antitank and antiaircraft weapons to the militants battling to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
 
Many people, including a large number of security personnel, have lost their lives in the foreign-backed unrest that broke out in Syria in March 2011.
 
The US and its Western allies, as well as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, claim that they seek an end to the deadly crisis in Syria, but at the same time they continue to arm and fund the militants.