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As Israel continues to brace itself beneath the specter of an imminent assault from Iran or its proxy forces, together with Hamas and Hezbollah, safety specialists are sounding the alarm that Tehran has its websites set on Jordan as its subsequent nice “terror front.”
“Jordan is the last holdout,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran skilled and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) advised Fox News Digital. “It’s the last bastion of the pro-Western or status quo order in the heartland of the northern part of the Middle East.”
The safety skilled pointed to Iran’s rising affect and help for proxy fighters not solely in Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, however additional out throughout the Arabian Peninsula, together with Yemen and Oman, the place anti-Israel sentiment is on the rise.
Houthi fighters march throughout a rally of help for the Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and towards the U.S. strikes on Yemen, outdoors Sanaa on Jan. 22, 2024. (AP Photo)
“Increasingly, the regime has benefited from the rise in anti-Israel sentiment to cause instability in Jordan,” Ben Taleblu stated.
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Growing concern over how Tehran will use anti-Israeli sentiment within the Middle East coincided with a warning issued Monday by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who stated Iran was working “to establish a new eastern terror front against Israel’s major population centers.”
The Israeli official stated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is coordinating with “Hamas operatives in Lebanon to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan” with the obvious purpose of destabilizing the Israeli neighbor.
Katz stated smuggled arms are transported throughout Jordan’s western border into the West Bank, referred to as Judea and Samaria, with a selected deal with refugee camps and the objective of creating pro-Iranian sentiment because it has accomplished in areas like Gaza and southern Lebanon.
“The Iranian axis of evil today effectively controls refugee camps in Judea and Samaria through its proxies, leaving the Palestinian Authority powerless to act,” Katz added.
Locator map of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (AP Photo)
Jordan’s border with Israel is the Jewish state’s longest shared border, reportedly stretching some 300 miles from the contested Golan Heights within the north, by the Palestinian West Bank and the Dead Sea, earlier than ending on the Gulf of Aqaba.
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Though Katz’s warnings come as tensions between Israel and Iran have reached a historic peak, native reporting exhibits that Iranian-led smuggling efforts have plagued Jordanian safety efforts for years.
The Jordanian regime during the last half decade has more and more been working to cease smuggling operations to assist forestall the formation of anti-Israel terrorist cells within the West Bank.
Hundreds of individuals collect to observe the speech of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, on a display, in Beirut, Lebanon on Nov. 3, 2023. (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu by way of Getty Images)
“Ultimately [that would] be a benefit to the Islamic Republic, because it could allow for a full encirclement of Israel,” Ben Taleblu stated. “The one thing that stands in the way of all of this is the Jordanian monarchy and the strength of the Jordanian security services.”
Jordanian officers have been working to ease tensions within the area by assembly with U.S., Israeli and Iranian officers over latest weeks following Tehran’s risk to hit the Jewish state straight.
Though whilst Jordan works to take care of the established order within the area and forestall an all-out warfare, it has additionally warned it won’t change into a battleground state for both nation to make the most of.
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A soldier attaches an Israeli flag to an armored personnel carriers close to the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, April 15, 2024.
“We will not be a battlefield for Iran or Israel. We informed the Iranians and the Israelis that we will not allow anyone to violate our airspace and risk the safety of our citizens,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stated in a Saturday interview, in response to a Reuters report.
“We will intercept anything that passes through our airspace or think that it constitutes a threat to us or our citizens,” he added.
