Connect with us

RSS

Jordan Foils Suspected Iranian Arms Plot as Kingdom Caught in Iran-Israel Shadow War

Demonstrators attend a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Amman, Jordan, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Alaa Al Sukhni

Jordan has foiled a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into the US-allied kingdom to help opponents of the ruling monarchy carry out acts of sabotage, according to two Jordanian sources with knowledge of the matter.

The weapons were sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan that has links to the military wing of Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the people told Reuters. The cache was seized when members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, were arrested in late March, they said.

The alleged plot and arrests, reported here for the first time, come at a time of sky-high tensions in the Middle East, with an American-backed Israel at war in Gaza with Hamas, part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” network of proxy groups built up over decades to oppose Israel.

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas said it had “no ties to any acts targeting Jordan” and that it only sought to target Israel.

The two Jordanian sources, who requested anonymity to discuss security matters, declined to say what acts of sabotage were allegedly being planned, citing ongoing investigations and covert operations.

They said the plot’s aim was to destabilize Jordan, a country that could become a regional flashpoint in the Gaza crisis as it hosts a US military base and shares borders with Israel as well as Syria and Iraq, both home to Iranian-backed militias.

The sources didn’t specify what weapons were seized in the March raid, though said in recent months security services have thwarted numerous attempts by Iran and its allied groups to smuggle in arms including Claymore mines, C4 and Semtex explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and 107mm Katyusha rockets.

Most of the clandestine flow of arms into the country has been bound for the neighboring West Bank Palestinian territory, according to the Jordanian sources. However, some of the weapons — including those seized in March — were intended for use in Jordan by the Brotherhood cell allied to Hamas militants, they said.

“They hide these weapons in pits called dead spots, they take their location via GPS and photograph their location and then instruct men to retrieve them from there,” said one of the sources, an official with knowledge of security matters, referring to the modus operandi of the smugglers.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist movement, of which Hamas is an offshoot founded in the 1980s. The movement says it does not advocate violence, and Jordan‘s Brotherhood has operated legally in the kingdom for decades.

Jordanian authorities believe Iran and its allied terrorist groups like Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are trying to recruit young, radical members of the kingdom’s Brotherhood to their anti-Israel, anti-US cause in a bid to expand the Tehran’s regional network of aligned forces, according to the two sources.

A senior representative of Jordan‘s Muslim Brotherhood confirmed that some of its members were arrested in March in possession of weapons but said whatever they did was not approved by the group and that he suspected they were smuggling arms to the West Bank rather than planning acts in Jordan.

“There is dialogue between the Brotherhood and the authorities. They know if there are mistakes it’s not the MB, only individuals and not MB policy,” said the representative, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Another senior figure in the Brotherhood, who also requested anonymity, told Reuters the arrested cell members had been recruited by Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri, who masterminded the Palestinian group’s operations in the West Bank from exile in Lebanon. Arouri was killed by a drone strike in Beirut in January in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

Spokespeople for the Jordanian government and the US Department of Defense declined to comment for this article, while the Iranian foreign ministry wasn’t immediately available. Israeli officials from the prime minister’s office and foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Over the past year, Jordan has said it has foiled many attempts by infiltrators linked to pro-Iranian militias in Syria who it says have crossed its borders with rocket launchers and explosives, adding that some of the weapons managed to get through undetected. Iran has denied being behind such attempts.

IN A FIX: JORDAN‘S KING ABDULLAH

Jordan‘s King Abdullah is walking a tightrope.

Most of his 11 million people are of Palestinian origin, because Jordan took in millions of Palestinian refugees fleeing the nascent state of Israel when neighboring Arab countries invaded the Jewish state in 1948. The current war in Gaza has put him in a tough position, struggling to reconcile support for the Palestinian cause with a long-standing US alliance and decades-old recognition of Israel.

The war has sparked widespread public anger, with calls by protesters to cut ties with Israel and street demonstrations erupted in recent weeks.

Last month, after Jordan joined a US-led effort to help Israel in downing salvos of drones and missiles fired by Iran, critics posted concocted images on social media of the king wrapped in an Israeli flag with comments such as “traitor” and “Western puppet.”

The disconnect between the government’s position and public sentiment has never been more pronounced in the wake of the shooting down of the drones, according to Jordanian journalist Bassam Badari.

“There was discontent,” he said. “Jordan used to skillfully stand at an equal distance from all the countries in the region, but with its intervention Jordan aligned itself with the American axis.”

Adding to Abdullah’s concerns, any tension with the Brotherhood could also carry risks, said two Jordanian politicians who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The group commands wide popular support in the country.

Jordanian authorities have not spoken publicly about the alleged weapons plot and the arrests.

One of the two Jordanian sources with knowledge of the alleged plot said intelligence officials had called in 10 senior Brotherhood figures to inform them that they arrested a cell that acted as a bridge between their movement and Hamas.

‘NO SUCH THING AS A JORDAN OPTION’

The Jordanian decision to join Western powers in the downing of Iranian drones bound for Israel was partly driven by fears among officials that the kingdom could be sucked into Iran’s strategic struggle against Israel, according to Saud Al Sharafat, a former brigadier-general in the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate.

“The Iranians have instructions to recruit Jordanians and penetrate the Jordan arena through agents,” he added. “Their recruitment efforts span all segments of society.”

Another motivating force for Jordan, according to many officials and diplomats in the region, was the unprecedented attack on a US military base in Jordan in January by Iran-aligned groups based in Iraq, which left three US soldiers dead and 40 injured. The attack was reportedly in support of Hamas in its war with Israel.

A diplomat close to Tehran said the Iranian ambition to establish a proxy foothold in Jordan went back to Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards who was killed by the US in 2020.

Soleimani believed that given Jordan‘s strong ties with the US and the West, building up an allied group there capable of fighting Israel was crucial to Tehran’s strategic ascendancy in the region, the diplomat told Reuters.

The hostility between Iran and Jordan dates back to 2004, in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq, when King Abdullah accused Iran of trying to create a “Shi’ite crescent” to expand its regional power.

King Abdullah defended his decision to shoot down the drones as an act of self-defense, not carried out for the benefit of Israel. He warned that “Jordan will not be a battlefield for any party.”

The military intervention also aimed to signal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that Jordan was a crucial buffer zone for regional security, according to the two Jordanian politicians.

The Jordanian monarchy supports the establishment of a Palestinian state. While some right-wing politicians in Israel have envisaged Jordan becoming an alternative Palestinian state, King Abdullah has repeatedly warned that there is no such thing as a “Jordan option.”

“The official position is that a two-state solution is not only in Palestinians’ interest,” said Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister who is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.

“It is also in Jordan‘s interests because it will establish a Palestinian state on Palestinian soil rather than a state on Jordan‘s soil.”

The post Jordan Foils Suspected Iranian Arms Plot as Kingdom Caught in Iran-Israel Shadow War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students

Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad

Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.

The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.

Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.

A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.

The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.

The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.

The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.

Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.

Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.

“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.

The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.

Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.

Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.

PRESSURE

Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.

The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.

The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy

Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.

There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.

Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.

Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.

“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.

The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.

The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.

It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.

“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.

“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.

Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.

The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News