French media is reporting that Jordan has granted Israel the use of its airspace to monitor developments and potentially strike targets in Syria. Le Figaro reported that Amman has opened two air corridors to Israeli drones – one through southern Jordan opposite the Negev and the other in the vicinity of the capital, a decision that Jordan’s King Abdullah II is said to have made after consultations with President Barack Obama and a failed meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:
According to the report, Jordanian King Abdullah made the decision in March during US President Barack Obama’s visit to Jordan, which came immediately after his first trip as president to Israel… According to the source, the unmanned aerial vehicles are carrying out surveillance, but “they are also armed and therefore can hit targets anywhere in Syria.”
Abdullah’s decision to open Jordan’s skies to Israeli Air Force drones came after the Jordanian monarch met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in early March in hopes of stemming the tide of Syrian refugees into Jordan. According to Le Figaro, Abdullah came away from the secret meeting with Assad empty-handed.
The Israeli drones are thought to be better equipped to evade Syria’s anti-aircraft missiles, among which are cutting-edge Russian-supplied batteries.
Appearing Monday with his U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon implicitly confirmed that Israel had struck a convoy carrying advanced weaponry bound for the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. Jerusalem, he said, would not allow “sophisticated weapons” to fall into the hands of Hezbollah or other rogue elements, adding that “When they crossed this red line, we acted.”
Neither Amman or Jerusalem have confirmed the French report. The tangled politics of the Middle East make untangling the motives of leaks and reporting unclear. The close working relationship between Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu – which Abdullah confirmed last month in an interview published by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg – is a potential liability for the king. There is an incentive for opponents to highlight and even fabricate Israeli-Jordanian cooperation.
Jordan on the other hand has a critical need to stabilize its border with Syria. Amman has absorbed more Syrian refugees than any other country. The influx is projected to cost the Hashemite Kingdom $1 billion this year alone, and many Jordanians resent the newcomers as competition for jobs and housing.
For his part, Assad has threatened Jordan, accusing the country’s government of letting opposition figures move freely back and forth across the border. In an hour-long interview with the regime-linked television station Ikhbariya, Assad lashed out at Jordan for allegedly allowing anti-government rebels to smuggle personnel and rebels across their shared border.
[Photo: U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv / Flickr]