A senior Jordanian official has confirmed that the Hashemite Kingdom is allowing the Israelis to fly unmanned drones over its air space as part of the Israeli monitoring of the situation in Syria.
The official, who is close to King Abdullah, told the JC that the two countries are “working as one over Syria”. He also said that, if the need arose, “of course we will allow Israel to use Jordanian air space for another attack on Syria”.
Without such permission, Israeli planes would have to fly over southern Lebanon, a Hizbollah stronghold.
The JC has also learned that Jordan is “in deep discussions” with Israel over a route map for any Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
Although the official said that the Jordanians have yet to make a final decision on the level of its co-operation, he indicated that it was “near certain” that they would help facilitate any Israeli attack.
“Although we will of course condemn it publicly”, he added.
In recent weeks there have been a number of unconfirmed reports of co-operation over Syria but this is believed to be the first time a senior Jordanian source has spoken openly about such links.
Jordan is currently receiving 3-4000 Syrian refugees a day and Islamist opposition to King Abdullah is gaining in strength.
The Jordanians are almost as concerned as Israel at the possibility of the Syrian regime’s weapons arsenal falling into the hands of terrorist and splinter groups which would
further destabilise an already uncertain
picture.
According to the Jordanian official: “Syria is a crisis whatever happens. Assad is no longer a force for stability. And the rebels are dominated by jihadists. The Israelis don’t mess about and that’s what we need. We are working as one over Syria.”
It is widely believed that in February Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks with King Abdullah in Jordan.
