Iran and its network of militias threaten to destabilize Jordan

[Valin]

FDD's Long War Journal

Joe Truzman

April 19, 2024

Iran has sought to leverage its militias and proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah, to destabilize Jordan, reported the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on April 16. 

There are “intensive Iranian efforts to target security in the kingdom over the last few months,” an unnamed Jordanian source told Asharq al-Awsat.

Illicit smuggling by Iran-backed militias in Jordan is not the only threat facing the Hashemite Kingdom. Following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack, Iranian-backed militias have attempted to carry out infiltration operations inside Jordan to support Palestinian terrorist groups.

“Iraqi militias loyal to Iran have tried, since last Oct. 7, to carry out infiltration operations across the Jordanian border with the goal of ‘popular mobilization’ to support the Palestinian resistance,” Asharq al-Awsat noted.

The Jordanian army thwarted the attempts when it conveyed threats to Iraqi militias active on its border with Iraq.

“However, the Jordanian army succeeded in foiling many of those attempts, directing ‘serious/credible threats’ which were delivered through official sources to bomb the Shiite masses which set up encampments for itself in the area of Trebil on the Iraqi side [of the border], which led to those militias withdrawing to a depth of more than 40 km within Iraqi borders,” Asharq al-Awsat reported.

(Snip)