You are here

Baseless claims

Apr 22,2017 - Last updated at Apr 22,2017

Jordan on Friday refuted Syrian President Bashar Assad’s allegation that Jordan plans to deploy troops in southern Syria, with the minister of state for media affairs and government spokesman, Mohammad Momani, calling these claims “baseless”.

Assad’s contention was made in an interview with the Russian news website Sputnik, prompting Momani to say that it shows the president’s wrong and dangerous perception of the crisis in his country.

This is not the first time that Damascus lays false claims about Jordan, even though Jordan’s policy on Syria has been clear from the very beginning of the conflict in this neighbouring country, in 2011.

The Kingdom has consistently called for a political solution to the crisis in Syria, for maintaining its territorial integrity and for the formation of an all-inclusive government in a country now deeply divided and hurt.

Jordan continues to uphold these basic principles. Syria’s security and stability are important for Jordan and the Kingdom would want nothing that would further destabilise its neighbour.

It is no secret that Daesh and Iranian Revolutionary Guards units are deployed some 70 kilometres from Jordan’s northern border, and that they have designs on the Kingdom, with its coveted security and safety.

These hostile factions might push south towards the Jordanian northern borders after the battles for Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria are over, so if anything, it is Jordan that has all the reasons to suspect a military threat from terrorist groups through southern Syria.

The Syrian regime should know that its brutal and oppressive way of dealing with its people’s uprising is responsible for the devastation visiting it, which turned Syria into a wasteland, killed hundreds of thousands of people, sent millions fleeing and turned it into fertile ground for foreign armed factions and extremist terrorist groups to carry out mindless bloodshed and advance their agendas.

Jordan has all the right to protect itself from external threat, wherever it emanates from.

It has every right to protect its borders from hordes of madmen, and since the danger may come from the north, it is normal to concentrate troops at that border.

But Jordan does not covet Syrian territory and has no hostile designs on this neighbouring Arab country.

Despite the unfounded allegations, the Kingdom — whose humanitarian stance vis-à-vis the million-and-a-half Syrian refugees who took refuge in Jordan draws praise from all quarters, including Syrians themselves — continues to lend support to a political solution in Syria.

 

This much the embattled Assad, who seems to try to deflect attention from his dwindling fortunes, could appreciate.

up
41 users have voted.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF