An IDF raid on Sunday uncovered a cache of weapons near the West Bank city of Tulkarm—the latest development in the ongoing fight to keep the area from becoming another Gaza. Even before the current war began, Iran has been supporting jihadists in the vicinity, in the hope of expanding Hamas’s war to Israel’s eastern front and creating chaos on both sides of the Jordan River. Despite its losses in Lebanon and Syria, and the pounding its proxies are now taking in Yemen, Tehran has not lost sight of what Oded Ailam terms “its long-term vision of jihadist expansion.”
The regime’s hardliners do not view these setbacks as a turning point but as temporary tactical challenges that must be navigated before resuming their broader objectives. . . . Iran is exploiting regional vulnerabilities to destabilize Jordan’s pro-Western monarchy and establish a contiguous anti-Israel network.
Ailam enumerates some of Iran’s methods:
- In the wake of the October 7 attacks, Iran has intensified its use of Iraqi militias to infiltrate Jordan, often under the guise of religious pilgrimages or commercial activity.
- Tehran is bolstering Palestinian factions, including small extremist groups in Jordan and Judea and Samaria, with weapons, financial support, and tactical training.
- Iran is reactivating dormant Islamist groups within Jordan, particularly factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, to weaken the government’s authority.
- Just as Iran has done in Lebanon with Hizballah and in Yemen with the Houthis, it is working to build grassroots support among disenfranchised populations in Jordan and Judea and Samaria, leveraging socioeconomic hardships to radicalize local elements and cultivate long-term proxies.
- Reports indicate that Iranian-backed operatives have established logistical hubs in Jordanian cities, laying the groundwork for future escalations.
Read more on Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs: https://jcpa.org/the-quds-forces-expansion-iranian-subversion-in-jordan-and-the-west-bank-post-october-7-2023/