Syrian FM says country has no troops in Yemen, won’t send any

Syria’s Foreign Minister on Monday (November 9, 2026) insisted that his country has no troops deployed in Yemen and was not planning on sending any, after Yemeni sources told AFP that Syrian soldiers were in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

“There is no deployment of troops to Yemen nor is there a plan for such deployment in the near future,” Asaad al-Shaibani said during a press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.

Multiple Yemeni officials told AFP last week that Syrian troops were already in the country, with potentially thousands to be deployed eventually.

Mr. Shaibani said that, despite Damascus and Riyadh signing a defence cooperation agreement this month, there was “no agreement with the legitimate government in Yemen for a deployment to Yemen”.

“Any military plan abroad would be announced… and not done in secret,” he added.

He said the accord with Riyadh, a key backer of Damascus as it seeks to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war, was vital for Syria to rebuild its institutions, including the military.

“We need Saudi expertise to help build the capacity of Syrians, and we would like there to be cooperation between us in the field of the defence industry, and on the academic level,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has been trying to mobilise its allies as it comes under repeated attack by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, where Riyadh has supported the internationally recognised government in the country’s civil war since 2015.

Syria itself was devastated by a civil war that began in 2011 and only ended with the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 by Islamist-led rebels.