Jordan uncovers Iranian plan to initiate attacks on Israel

Ha'aretz (citing Asharq Al-Awsat) ^ | December 5, 2002

[mmmmmmmm....... donuts]

11:30 05/02/2002

Last update - 12:00 05/02/2002

Jordan uncovers Iranian plan to initiate attacks on Israel

By Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondent and Ha'aretz Service

Jordan's King Abdullah recently told U.S. President George Bush that Iran has a large-scale plan to carry out terror attacks against Israel from Jordanian territory, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported Tuesday.

According to details in the article, Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, trained in Iran and in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, have tried to attack Israel 17 times with rockets and mortar shells from inside Jordanian territory. The paper said that Jordanian and U.S. officials confirmed this information.

According to the report, Abdullah presented evidence of these attacks to Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, during his recent trip to the U.S. The King also said that Jordan had prevented as many as 70 terror attacks against Israel from its own territory.

Abdullah tried to discuss the matter by telephone with Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, but was told by Khatami that the conservative wing in the Iranian regime was responsible for the attacks.

The revelation of the plan to orchestrate attacks on Israel, was one of the reasons U.S. President George Bush listed Iran, during his recent State of the Union address, as one of the countries belonging to the "axis of evil."

U.S. officials said that some of the weapons used for the attempted attacks were smuggled into Jordan through the port of Aqaba, the radio said.

[mmmmmmmm....... donuts]

Axis of evil bump

[vannrox]

BUMP

[AAABEST]

. Turn over the weapon stocks of al Qaeda and the Taleban regime in Afghanistan to Iranian dissidents, Kurds and any other dissaffected ethnic groups and see how Teheran likes it.

LOL!

[FreeAtlanta]

conservative wing in the Iranian regime

What the #$@@. I really wish the leftwingers would stop this blatent attempt to connect conservatives with the nuts in those countries. The only sympathy the "conservative" Taliban and Al Quadia scum are getting is coming from the left in our country! Why call those creeps anything but fanatics?

[gulfcoast6]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are so right.

[Publius6961]

Jordan uncovers Iranian plan to initiate attacks on Israel

A solid example of the concept that states are what they do not what they say.
I have had mixed feelings about Jordan. It is good to see a concrete example of civilized behavior from a Muslim State.
I wonder if Jordan is the only one in the immediate neighborhood of Israel?

[jwalsh07]

Can't be, the Eurotrash and their effeteAmerican allies have assured me that there is no axis and that Iran is about to emerge as a shining state on the hill.

[LTCJ]

Jordan Told USA About Iranian Plan to Stage Attacks on Israel - Paper - More Details

BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political, February 05, 2002

Text of report from New York by Amir Taheri; published by London- based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 5 February

Sources close to US President George W. Bush report that Jordan has submitted to the USA evidence of what was called a significant Iranian plan calling for mounting "terrorist attacks" against Israel from Jordanian territory. The Jordanian monarch, who held talks with President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Colin Powell, the sources add, shared the evidence during his recent visit to the USA. According to testimony given by US sources and corroborated by Jordanian sources that preferred not to be named, Iran was involved directly and clearly in at least 17 attempts to launch rocket and artillery attacks against Israel from Jordanian territory. The attacks would have been mounted by members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad Movement, who had received training in Iran and at camps run by Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The sources say Iran's attempt to open up a new front against Israel from Jordan was discussed in two phone conversations between King Abdallah II and the Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. A top Jordanian official said: "We know that the king had put the matter before the Iranian president directly and quite clearly. Khatami responded by saying that the part of the Iranian government under his control was not responsible for the activities targeting Israel from inside the Jordanian territory. Khatami charged that hard-line elements were seeking to sabotage his efforts to change his country's foreign policy."

The second conversation between the Jordanian and Iranian leaders, the same source added, took an unexpectedly tense tone, with King Abdallah telling Khatami that "to place the blame on hard-liners was not enough or convincing". Khatami reacted by saying that "those who want him to succeed would have to be patient or they were going to face more difficult options in the future".

The sources disclosed that Jordan was now viewing its ties with Iran in a specific light until Tehran put a definitive end to its arming and training and funding Palestinian fighters in order for them to launch attacks from Jordanian territory against Israel. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has failed to secure an audience with the Jordanian monarch.

Analysts say Iran's attempt to open up a new front against Israel in Jordan was the outcome of fears by Tehran that increased action by Hezbollah in Lebanon might trigger a retaliatory attack against Syria by Israel or even the USA. How many consignments of arms have reached the fighters in Jordan from Iran is not clear. US intelligence sources, however, report that some of the weapons might have been smuggled on board ships calling at the Gulf of Aqaba. Last month, the Israelis intercepted a ship with a 50-ton shipment of weapons that was said to have been sent by Iran. According to analysts in Washington, Iran's involvement in military activity in Jordan had played a key role in President Bush's decision to add Iran to what he called "the axis of evil". Washington had relied only on Israeli reports before Jordan came forward with evidence. According to the reports, Iran was attempting to place Israel between a pair of military pincers that would see it attacked simultaneously from Lebanon and Jordan.

Iranian media, which are under the complete control of the hard- liners, have over the past few months been given to calling for taking "fresh initiatives" against Israel. They were thus expressing Iran's official line, which argues that Israel is now at its weakest, and that support must be made available to the Palestinian uprising through military initiatives from the neighbouring states.

Addressing the World Economic Forum, the Jordanian monarch said Jordanian security services had uncovered a plan envisioning attacks against Israeli targets from Jordan. The king said: "Our American friends know that we have saved many Israeli lives, having thwarted these plans."

The Jordanian monarch, however, would neither confirm nor deny an Iranian involvement in any of these would-be attacks, but he vowed that his government was determined to "stop, defeat and crush terrorism, no matter what its source is".

King Abdallah II added: "Palestinian terrorists in the 1970s killed more Jordanian than Israeli diplomats and at one point they were on the verge of destroying Jordan."

King Abdallah II said: "It cost us dearly over many years as we sought to remove the stigma of terrorism from our country and we are now prepared to join the war on terror throughout the world." He denied that he had acted so as to toughen his country's policy towards Iran. "All I have said is that Iran, Iraq and North Korea have received warnings and they have to rethink their policies," the king explained.

(C) 2002 BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

[LTCJ]

A solid example of the concept that states are what they do not what they say. I have had mixed feelings about Jordan. It is good to see a concrete example of civilized behavior from a Muslim State.

Jordan is really caught between a rock and a hard place. Internal and external pressure of huge proportions; one might say, biblical. The new king has big shoes to fill.

Interesting contrast with this article:

Jordanian daily calls for Arab-Iranian coordination to face US "storm"

Khaleej Times | February 5, 2002 | AFP

AMMAN - A Jordanian newspaper called on Monday for Arab-Iranian coordination to offset any possible US attack on Iraq and Iran as Jordan's King Abdullah II warned again of the repercussions of a strike on Baghdad. Al Arab Al Yawm daily accused Washington of naming Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" to please Israel, which it said sees a threat coming from these three nations. "North Korea was added to the "axis of evil" next to Iraq and Iran because it is accused of exporting weapons to countries opposed to Israel," the newspaper said ...Posted on 2/5/02 9:51 AM Eastern by stilts

[jae471]

Jordan has the most to lose among Arabs states if things continue to go downhill. Abdullah and co. want to stay on the good side of the US. They've maintained formal peace with Israel for a while now, and stop alot of acts of Iraqi terror from reaching Israel. Israel and Jordan share a good deal of intel, since both countries see the palistinians are bottom-feeder terrorists.

They try to keep much of this from the Arab world, and they want to prevent all-out war. If things get really ugly, they will quickly become the Belgium of Middle East.

[Alamo-Girl]

Volley bump!

[finnman69]

Has Jordan read the handwriting on the wall and decided to enter the civilized world? Ok, maybe that is a reach.

[epluribus_2]

Khatami sure is starting to sound and look like Musharraf of Pakistan. Maybe this is the new planned model for extremist states, to have a "moderate" puppet to speak with the civilized world while the military and mullahs run the show and advance their cause.

[LincolnLover]

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a 20th century creation, implemented by imperialists (in this case, the British) to serve imperialistic needs.

Arabs know the "Jordanian state" is a transient one, with very little historical rooting, and the thought of carving up the kingdom among neighboring states and leaving a decent-sized chunk of it to be a "Palestinian homeland" for the millions of Palestinians who choke the streets of Amman is a thought that has occured to many people, Jewish, Arab, European, and American alike. Think of modern-day Jordan as a rough historical equivalent to Poland, with external and internal (read: Polish-Germans, like those located in pre-war Danzig) foes alike agreeable to its partition to serve regional political interests.

In other words, Jordanians play both sides of the fence to ensure survival of the state, for regional war might well spell the end of Jordan as it is currently known.

(Before any of you jump down my throat with "Hashemites have centuries of ruling lineage in the region" posts, I do not question the legitimacy of Hashemite rule in the region, only the "sanctity" of Jordanian borders as they have existed for much of the 20th century.)

[Alamo-Girl]

It sounds like the President got their attention in the State of the Union address. Pakistan didn't act until they had no other choice - Iran may be seeing the writing on the wall. The 'man on the street' in the region, IMHO, probably is not aware of the consequences and thus will be hard to change ... sigh. But they have to start somewhere, or else.

[Aquamarine]

I like your homepage. :-)
Your Proverb instructs females how to be a good and virtuous woman.

[RightWhale]

attempt to connect conservatives with the nuts in those countries

The Conservative wing in Iran would not be related to American Conservatism in any way. No one in the world at large is concerned at all with American conservatives nor with American liberalism nor any of the other flavors of American politics. The Iranian conservative wing might wish to eliminate Israel for reasons known only to themselves. The American conservative wing might wish to preserve Israel. After that they two groups diverge even more widely. No one is confused.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Jordan's King Abdullah recently told U.S. President George Bush that Iran has a large-scale plan to carry out terror attacks against Israel from Jordanian territory, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat reported Tuesday.

Daniel 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

Feisal: You are an Englishman. Are you not loyal to England?
Lawrence: To England, and to other things.
Feisal: To England and Arabia both? And is that possible? (He walks right up close and looks into Lawrence's eyes.) I think you are another of these desert-loving English...No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees, there is nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing. Or is it that you think we are something you can play with because we are a little people? A silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel? What do you know, Lieutenant. In the Arab city of Cordova, there were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village...
Lawrence: Yes, you were great.
Feisal: ..nine centuries ago...
Lawrence: Time to be great again, my Lord.
Feisal: ...which is why my father made this war upon the Turks. My father, Mr. Lawrence, not the English. Now my father is old. And I, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordova. However, before the gardens must come fighting. To be great again, it seems that we need the English or...
Lawrence: ...or?...
Feisal: ...what no man can provide, Mr. Lawrence. We need a miracle!