Jordan blames Syria after latest border gunfight linked to drugs
The Jordanian military has blamed Damascus for increased drug smuggling into the kingdom from southern Syria, after a second narcotics-related exchange of fire on the border in three weeks.
Smugglers who crossed the northern border from Syria were killed in clashes that started on Saturday, the army said.
“The responsibility lies with the Syrian state,” Jordanian army representative Brig Mustafa Al Hiyari told state television on Sunday.
“The responsibility lies with this [Syrian] government [for] any presence of militias, regardless of their ties. Behind this organised action are outside agendas.”
Jordan had toned down its criticism of Syria, as well as Iran, over the flow of illegal drugs after rapprochement last year with the government in Damascus. Tehran supports Hezbollah and other militias present on Syria’s southern border with Jordan. Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad had been ostracised since the authorities used deadly force to suppress a pro-democracy movement in 2011.
It was the last of a wave of Arab uprisings, and by the end of the year, Syria was in a civil war.
The authorities in Amman had blamed the Syrian military and its allied militias supported by Iran for the flow of drugs, particularly the amphetamine Captagon, which has been smuggled into Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Iran and Hezbollah said the allegations are part of a western plot against them. Syrian authorities deny complicity with Iranian-backed militias.
Brig Al Hiyari said repeated discussions with Syrian authorities on the issue “did not bear fruit”, as drugs and weapons smuggling increased. “The objective is to build incubators in the Jordanian interior to oversee the smuggling,” he said.