Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates has said it is ready to commit ground troops against IS militants in Syria and described Russian air strikes in the country as attacks on a "common enemy".
Quoted by the official WAM news agency on Monday, Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the UAE would "participate in any international effort demanding a ground intervention to fight terrorism".
"Regional countries must bear part of the burden" of such an intervention, he said during a Sunday discussion on Syria.
The UAE is a member of the US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the jihadist Islamic State group in territory under its control in Syria and Iraq.
As the IS militants have held out against more than a year of strikes and launched operations abroad including the November 13 attacks in Paris, there have been growing calls for the anti-IS intervention to expand to a ground force.
In the UAE's first official reaction to the Russian strikes, Gargash said "we agree that nobody will be upset by the Russian bombardment of Daesh or Al-Qaeda as it targets a common enemy."
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for IS.
AFP
