It was noteworthy that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi visited Damascus and held a meeting with the Syrian president, and then noteworthy too were the details of the statement issued about the visit.
اضافة اعلان
In Amman, there were many questions about the reason for the visit at this particular timing, and the significance of certain phrases in the statement that was issued. Interpretations extended to talk of a new Jordanian role in the file of southern Syria and Sweida, but most of the information remained shrouded in ambiguity, perhaps due to the sensitivities of the Syrian file and the complexities of the situation.
There is a Jordanian Syrian American roadmap concerning the Sweida file in particular, agreed upon at a meeting attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Minister Asaad Al Shibani, with the participation of the United States ambassador to the Republic of Turkey and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, roughly a year ago, where agreement was reached on this roadmap.
The most prominent points of the roadmap included agreement on resolving the crisis in Sweida on the basis of the unity of Syrian territory, that all Syrians are equal citizens in rights and duties within their state, alongside preserving the stability of southern Syria, considering Sweida governorate an integral part of Syria with no future for it outside that framework, and calling for an investigation into the events that took place in Sweida governorate at the time, among other important details.
Jordan, for its part, rejects the separation of Sweida from Syria, and views the separatist project led by Hikmat Al Hijri as an Israeli project that threatens Syria and directly affects Jordan's security. According to information available, Jordan attempted to hold a meeting here in Amman regarding the Sweida file, but Hikmat Al Hijri refused to attend, sticking to his separatist course, one that serves Israeli interests, as if he is deliberately defying the roadmap even though it represents the best solution for the Sweida file, on top of the fact that it guarantees the unity of Syrian territory and finds a solution to many sensitive files.
Had the other forces in Sweida read the details of the roadmap, they would not have accepted Al Hijri and his direction growing the way it has, especially now that open displays of "Israelization" have become a daily occurrence in Sweida, threatening the historical social definitions of Sweida's components, definitions that were never previously in dispute.
This also explains, from another angle, Jordan's welcoming of the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their integration into Syrian military institutions, because Jordan wants to extinguish separatist and isolationist calls and ensure Syria's unity and stability, which directly affects Jordan, along with Jordan's public desire to remove the Israeli hand from Syria and its dangerous meddling, in addition to condemning the repeated Israeli attacks and incursions into Syrian territory, and the necessity of ending the Israeli occupation of the Syrian lands it has occupied. The Israeli factor is among the most dangerous factors threatening Syria and its Jordanian and Arab neighbors.
In any case, the visit was not devoted exclusively to the Sweida file. There are other issues too, most notably developing Jordanian Syrian relations beyond trade relations to include energy projects and the railway linking the Arabian Gulf to Europe, strengthening cooperation in the fields of defense and security and the fight against drugs and smuggling, in addition to various other files that certainly remained outside the official statements and media announcements.
This means that Jordanian Syrian relations are witnessing an accelerated political and economic upgrade at this particular moment, and the Jordanian Syrian understandings across various files are no secret.
Damascus will host, next month, the third session of the Jordan Syria Higher Coordination Council, following up on the implementation of the outcomes of the second session held in Amman last April, and translating what was agreed upon into practical steps, especially in the sectors of trade, investment, transport, customs, water, energy, and other priority sectors, in a way that serves the interests of the two countries and the two fraternal peoples. This points to a promising horizon.
We want to develop relations with our Syrian brothers by every means, and this is a natural course. We also want the same for Jordanian Iraqi relations, which are not lacking in agreement on many files, were it not for the tangle of armed Iraqi factions that threaten Jordan through its eastern border, and were it not for the "Iranian influence" that shows up at many junctures and leaves its mark openly.
Jordan's Arab neighborhood, including Palestine, matters greatly, and it is Jordan's fate to be surrounded by fires of every kind in its vicinity; even if the flames don't reach us, at the very least the smoke does.
