Last week, Jerusalem agreed to sell Amman a much-larger-than-usual amount of water, while easing the way for Jordanian exports to the West Bank. The agreement seems a positive sign, after a crisis in relations this spring. But Edy Cohen sees Jordan going in a very different direction, that makes it an entirely unreliable ally for Israel:
On June 27, 2021, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met with Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Baghdad. All three announced an agreement to cooperate on transporting Iraqi oil through pipelines from Iraq to Jordan to Egypt, from where it will be exported to Europe through the Mediterranean. . . . The Iraqi government is a puppet state controlled by Iran. Exporting Iraqi oil through Jordan to Europe is simply exporting oil controlled by Iran, which rules Iraq through its Shiite militias and controls the country’s resources.
One day after this happened, Jordanian state media began promoting full financial cooperation with Iran. This is as shocking to the Jordanian public as it was to the Egyptian public 40 years ago when then-president Anwar Sadat announced peace with Israel. [The kingdom then] went further, with a monarchy-supported campaign to . . . promote the Shiite faith itself.
[Absent an about-face], it will not take long for Jordan to sink into darkness—just like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have. As for Israel, there is a fear of [Iran] opening a front from hell, sending drones or even digging tunnels in the areas bordering Jordan, which will be under the control of [the Islamic Republic’s agents].
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/its-official-jordan-is-now-allies-with-iran-opinion-673292