Jonathan Spyer
Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2024
“The Iranian arms route from Lebanon, through Syria and Jordan to the West Bank, represents the main flagrant subversion of Jordanian sovereignty so far achieved by the Tehran regime.”
Iran-supported Islamist militias are currently engaged in war against Israel on two fronts. The main focus of combat remains, of course, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
A “support front,” as is the preferred term, has been maintained by Lebanese Hezbollah since October 8 in the Israel-Lebanon border area.
Iran seeks as a strategic objective to surround Israel with a crescent of active fronts maintained by Iran and supported by Islamist client militias. As part of this, the regime is seeking to find a way to add an eastern component to this crescent – through Jordan to the West Bank.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its client militias have freedom of action, of course, in Iraq, where they are deeply embedded in government and state.
But further west, two elements stand as barriers in the way of the Iranian desire to begin an armed campaign against Israel in the West Bank and from there into central Israel. These are the US-supported Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Israeli security presence in the West Bank.
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