(May 15, 2024 / JNS) Amman thwarted a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into Jordan to carry out acts of sabotage and undermine the ruling Hashemite dynasty, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
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The arms were transferred from Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan with links to the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood currently engaged in a war with Israel following its cross-border invasion on Oct. 7.
The arms were intended for the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to carry out sabotage and destabilize the Hashemite regime.
Members of the terrorist squad—Jordanians of Palestinian descent—were arrested in late March and the cache was confiscated, the sources said.
Tehran has been trying to flood Judea and Samaria with weapons via Jordan to be used in terrorist attacks against Israelis in recent years, but this marks the first confirmed instance where the target is the kingdom itself.
The plot underscores rising concerns in Amman over efforts to destabilize the reigning dynasty led by King Abdullah II.
Despite its small Shia population of just 2% of the population, the kingdom is vulnerable to Iranian influence as Tehran and its regional proxies “are leveraging Sunni Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to gain influence,” he said.
Winter continued, “Islamist groups are attempting to capitalize on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, framing it as an Islamic religious war against Israel, to restore their status in the Arab world, starting with Jordan.”
Dr. Joshua Krasna, a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Hezbollah, the Iranian terrorist proxy in Lebanon, has also been a player in attempting to destabilize the Hashemite kingdom.
“Iran and Hezbollah have been trying to use Jordan as an active front, for attacks on Israeli targets in the kingdom but even more as a conduit for weapons and personnel into the West Bank, for decades,” Krasna, a former Israeli diplomat, told JNS. “Jordan’s security forces dedicate great efforts to uncovering and preventing these activities: it considers both Iran and Hezbollah as dangerous enemies to its internal security.”