Whistleblower website WikiLeaks says leaked documents from Saudi ministries have revealed that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey had a secret deal three years ago to topple the Syrian government.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Rossiya-1 (Russia 1) TV channel on Sunday that the United States, France, and Britain had also been involved in the secret deal in 2012.

He added that Washington’s allies in the Middle East such as Riyadh acted in a more aggressive manner and even against the directives of the United States.

WikiLeaks began publishing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic and government documents, including internal reports from Saudi government organizations and communications between the country's embassies across the world earlier in June.

The transparency website has obtained e-mail communications between Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry and other countries.

WikiLeaks has announced that it had already released over 60,000 Saudi documents on its webpage, most of them in Arabic.

Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since 2011 with more than 230,000 people dead and millions of others injured in the scourge so far.

The US and its allies are rendering support for the militants fighting against the Syrian government forces.

Classified reports from a number of Saudi institutions, including the Ministry of Interior and the Kingdom's General Intelligence Services, were among the published documents.

Back in 2010, Assange won international prominence and angered the US administration by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents, including those related to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 and secured political asylum from Quito after he lost a legal battle against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sexual abuse allegations. The anti-privacy campaigner has denied the accusations against him.

SF/NN/HRB