AMMAN — The
drastic increase in drug trafficking operations across the border with
Syria is
being viewed as a scheme by Iran and its proxies to destabilize Jordan and the
region, said pundits.
اضافة اعلان
On May 23,
senior army spokesperson Col. Mustafa Hyari told Al- Mamlaka TV that Jordan is
facing a drug war along its borders that is led by dangerous organized Iranian
militias. His announcement came after
His Majesty King Abdullah’s statement in
an interview for the Battlegrounds series by Stanford University’s Hoover
Institution on May 18, in which he warned that a Russian withdrawal from
southern Syria would allow Iran-backed militias to fill the void.
On May 21 the
Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army announced that it had killed four smugglers in
the latest confrontation on its northern border. The confrontations have left
at least 40 infiltrators dead and hundreds injured since the beginning of 2022.
Recently, Jordanian officials said they are concerned about the drastic spike
in drug smuggling attempts through the Syrian-Jordanian border. More than 20
million Captagon tablets were confiscated in the last five months in comparison
to 14 million tablets in all of 2021, Reuters reported.
Iran is doing that to increase its leverage regionally and internationally. It uses proxies and terrorist groups to exercise political and economic extortion of other countries threatened by its behavior
The drug
trafficking issue has become so dire that the army changed the rules of
engagement in February, giving officers a free hand in dealing with
infiltrators.
Jordan is the
main transit route for Syrian drugs to the Gulf and
European countries,
according to reports.
Political
analyst and Chairman of NAMA-Strategic Intelligence Solutions Fares Braizat
told
Jordan News that what Iran is doing, through its militias at the
Jordanian-Syrian border, does not target Jordan only but is a plan to
destabilize the entire region to increase Tehran’s influence.
“Iran is doing
that to increase its leverage regionally and internationally. It uses proxies
and terrorist groups to exercise political and economic extortion of other
countries threatened by its behavior,” Braizat said.
He added that
Jordan will continue to deal with drug smugglers on its borders as a national
security issue. Also, Jordan will continue to push regional and international
powers to address this expanding threat.
Professor of
international relations and conflict resolution
Hasan Al-Momani told
Jordan
News that Iran sponsors the drug trafficking activities across Jordan’s
northern border and in recent months we have seen the volume and capabilities
of these smuggling attempts grow drastically.
He added that
this is an economical hybrid war where these
Iranian- backed militias have
weaponized drug smuggling to pressure Jordan as Tehran seeks to expand its
control and influence in the region.
“Drug smuggling
serves political and security goals for Iran and since Jordan is the only stable
Arab country in the neighborhood, acting as a barricade, the Iranians would
want to change that,” Momani said.
Political
analyst and columnist
Hamadeh Faraneh told
Jordan News that the drug
trafficking issue has two elements: commercial and security. He explained that
the first brings high profits to the militias that enable them to purchase more
weapons and finance themselves. The second, he added, is a rising threat to
Jordan’s national security in light of the possible absence of Russian forces
from Syria that used to keep these groups as far away as possible from the
borders.
“These armed
groups present a risk factor to Jordan’s national security that is no less
dangerous than Daesh and
Al-Qaeda’s sleeper cells,” Faraneh said.
Jordan said on
Monday pro-Iranian Syrian army units and militias loyal to Tehran are stepping
up their attempts to smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs
across the Jordanian border to wealthy
Gulf markets.
The
army said it was bracing for an escalation in confrontations with armed
smugglers trying to drop large amounts of drugs along the rugged border terrain
with Syria.
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