Why the world should support Jordan

Jordan has been at the forefront of countries fighting terrorism, the threat Jordan has long warned against and fought in earnest, ahead of many other countries.

King Abdullah, with the support of the people of Jordan, has been prophetic in his unique vision ever since he took office in 2009.

The King started then the “true war against terrorism”, dedicating serious resources to the intelligence agencies and granting them unprecedented authority to eliminate all sorts of terrorist factions, and, more importantly, gave them, as well as many other concerned governmental and non-governmental organisations, all the support they needed in their efforts to create a civilised nation, free of terrorist groups and individuals.

They have since captured, prevented and eliminated many terrorists and terrorist attacks, both in Jordan and abroad.

The start of the Syrian conflict saw Syrians flee the catastrophic situation at home, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.

Jordan, has received 1.3 million Syrian refugees ever since.

Taking into account the Kingdom’s very limited resources and infrastructure, Jordan has been able to survive thanks to the people of Jordan who generously contributed the most for the sake of the greatest good of the nation.

However, the country is suffering due to a lack of resources, continued strain on the limited infrastructure and pressure from nationalist activists; it had to deal with the economic hardships mostly alone.

This situation should concern the international alliance against terrorism for many reasons.

One major reason is that if Jordan is to witness any sort of instability or economic shock, the ramifications can far exceed the Jordanian borders, as the country will turn its attention internally, prioritising the nation’s interests, and may withdraw some of the resources against terrorism to boost the national economy.

Another possibility, justifiable in view of the events, is that the country decides to close the border with Syria, which would enormously increase the suffering of Syrians who feel safe as they get closer to the Jordanian border.

Lastly, the country may rethink its overall strategy regarding international alliances and political relationships with the major players.

Western countries may need to worry, seeing that the Russian intervention in the region has been growing and Russia is trying to get even closer to Jordan, an effort that has been unsuccessful so far, at least from the people’s perspective.

These are only some reasons why the world should step up and stand by the Jordanian people.

World leaders must be well aware of the unintended consequences if Jordan were to reconsider its strategies and course of action.

The world must understand that the country cannot ignore the people’s interests just to satisfy the international community’s demands unless there is true and sincere intention to help Jordan take a greater role in fighting terrorism and in dealing with the consequences of a war that the Kingdom did not start but whose consequences it has had to deal with.

Hope that the Syrian crisis will end soon is sincere, but does not appear to be realistic, as more complications seem to exist along the road.

The writer is a faculty member at the Hashemite University. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.