AMMAN — The Director of Military
Information, Col. Mustafa Al-Hiyari, has said that members of the
Jordanian Armed Forces–the Arab Army are facing a systematic drug war targeting Jordanian
society and the values of its members, led by organized groups supported by
foreign parties, Al-Mamlaka TV reported.
اضافة اعلان
He referred to the interview last week of
His Majesty King Abdullah II with the Hoover Institution, where he said that the
vacuum that Russia will leave, especially in southern Syria, is being filled by
Iran and its proxies, namely pro-Iranian militias. Hiyari added that “dangerous
Iranian organizations are conspiring and targeting Jordan’s national security.”
In an interview with Al-Mamlaka TV on Monday, Hiyari
explained that drug smuggling operations from Syria to Jordanian territory are
carried out by three to four groups, each consisting of 10 to 20 people,
including those who work on reconnaissance and surveillance, while another try
to distract monitoring efforts by the armed forces. A third waits for the
appropriate opportunity to carry out smuggling operations.
Hiyari added that “sometimes the smugglers receive support
from undisciplined groups from the Syrian border guards and other groups.”
“We are seeing undisciplined and armed criminal
groups pursuing the smuggling process in a professional manner, and recently
they started targeting weapons and using force,” said Hiyari. He added that
“the smugglers have no connection with groups inside Jordan.”
Regarding the
presence of extremist and terrorist groups close to Jordan’s northern and
eastern borders, Hiyari said
Daesh, Jabhat Al-Nusra, and Ansar Al-Din all have
presence close by while in other areas there are pro-Iranian organizations, and
the latter “are more dangerous because they have a foreign agenda and target
Jordan’s national security”.
Hiyari said that the topography of the northern
border is complicated, as the western part is made of rugged mountainous areas,
while in the central part there are volcanic rocks which make it impossible for
military vehicles to travel through them. The eastern part is an open desert
where vehicles are used in smuggling operations.
He added that the penalty for a smuggler carrying a
single load has increased to JD10,000, from JD2000, after the army had changed
the rules of engagement.
Hiyari said that the new rules of engagement remain
in force until now, and “we will continue to apply them because they had a
positive result, and the evidence is the size of the recent seizures, which has
doubled since the beginning of the year.”
He added that the armed forces is working on plans
to bring in and manufacture drones to target smugglers and for surveillance
purposes, in addition to installing radars that disable drones used by the
smugglers.
“The armed
forces is facing this threat on behalf of Jordan, the countries of the region,
and the countries of the world, as reports indicated that drugs that are
manufactured in
Syria have reached European countries.”
He added that the armed forces and the rest of the
state’s agencies are confronting drug smuggling on behalf of the countries of
the region and the world, and therefore “we expect that others will help Jordan
as they did previously because leaving Jordan alone will have unimaginable
consequences.”
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