The Israel-Jordan peace treaty brought a moment of hope to the region. But Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination killed the Israeli left, and with it the idea and spark of hope.
Author: Rana Sabbagh
All of the complexities and competing interests in the Middle East are coming out during the current showdown between Israel and Iran, and Jordan has a strategic role to play.
Concerned about Islamic State sleeper cells in Syria, neighboring Jordan is cautiously hoping the country’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, will support international efforts to combat ISIS.
Trump’s suggestion that Egypt and Jordan take Palestinians in Gaza is the ultimate nightmare scenario for Cairo and Amman, but the U.S. president looks prepared to use his leverage to get a deal the Israelis would prefer.
Jordan has cautiously followed the emergence of Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, from the ranks of jihad fighters to a statesman. Amman is increasingly concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood could exploit the rise of Islamists in Syria to sow chaos in Jordan, or the return of extremist fighters to areas on its borders.
Categories
What Syria’s Future Means For Jordan
Amman and its allies, much like the skeptical secular Syrian opposition, await tangible actions on the ground to match the promises of pragmatist rhetoric from Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who is marketing himself as a statesman committed to building an inclusive new Syria that’s a good neighbor after abandoning extremist ideologies.
The upcoming challenge is the most serious for Jordan since King Abdullah II assumed power 25 years ago, as the incoming U.S. president will be pressing for a deal that could reshape the whole region.
In his first term, Donald Trump tried to undermine the strategy that Jordan had bet on for more than two decades, to protect itself from the risk of transferring the Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to Jordan. What will a second Trump term mean for the country?
The Kingdom is trapped between the hammer of Netanyahu’s right-wing expansionist government policies, and the anvil of the growing influence of the discourse of the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance in the region. An ultimately unsuccessful attempt by militants to cross into Israel has raised new urgency.