The majority of Jordanians are of Palestinian descent, and the country has also made peace with Israel. This puts Jordan in a test that another regional power is trying to exploit.
For weeks, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Jordan’s capital Amman and protested in front of the Israeli embassy against the fighting in the Gaza Strip. “Death to Israel,” they shouted, and “Gaza, stay brave.” Anger towards Israel seems to be huge in the neighboring country.
And then recently this happened: When Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel, Jordan actively participated in the defense – even shooting down drones that flew over its own territory. To the joy of Israel and allied countries. Israel’s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said the Iranian attack had “created new opportunities for cooperation in the Middle East.”
On the other hand, there is horror on the pro-Palestinian side. Observers and commentators in the Arab world shook their heads and accused Jordan of double standards. Jordan is even being called a traitor on social networks. Mustafa Kamal as-Sayyed, a political scientist at Cairo University, says those responsible in Jordan are in a difficult situation. “They don’t want to be drawn into a regional conflict and are therefore trying to prevent direct confrontation between Iran and Israel.”
Broad solidarity with the Palestinians
Jordan is in a balancing act: on the one hand, around 60 percent of the population is of Palestinian descent, including Queen Rania. Accordingly, the majority of Jordanians, like most people in the Arab world, show solidarity with the Palestinians in the Middle East war.
Many accuse Israel of war crimes in Gaza. The Jordanian royal family also did not spare criticism of Israel and organized an airlift for Gaza.
Peace with Israel for many years
At the same time, the Jordanian royal family was one of the few Arab countries to make peace with Israel in 1994 and is a close ally of the USA and Europe. King Abdallah’s mother is British, and he and his children were educated in elite British schools. German soldiers are also stationed in Jordan.
Jordan has been closely allied with the West since the founding of the state. Political scientist As–Sayyed reminds us that Jordan is “a product of Western colonial powers.” After the end of the Ottoman Empire, the British and French gave the land to the Hashemite Sherif of Mecca as a reward for rebelling against the Ottomans. “The West has always protected Jordan because, given the numerous despots and radical forces in the region, it has an interest in being an ally in the Arab world and protecting Jordan’s security.”
A place of calm stability
For decades, Jordan has had one main task: to be a buffer zone. The small country without many mineral resources and almost no water borders on Israel on one side, Iraq on the other, Saudi Arabia in the south and Syria in the north.
Lots of wars and conflicts raged and raged around the small country – refugees from all directions came to the safety of Jordan and stayed there, whether from the Palestinian territories, during the Iraq war, the advance of the “Islamic State” or the war in Syria.
For years, Jordan has been a place of calm stability in the ever-simmering Middle East – which is why Amman’s temporary reputation for being boring may have sounded almost like a compliment to Jordanians.
But this tranquility is over. The Jordanian politics professor Amer Sabaileh states that Geographical location puts Jordan “in the middle of all conflicts”. The fact that Jordan, on the other hand, is “the only country in the region without its own conflict” causes other actors to “keep an eye on Jordan in order to destabilize the country.”
The King’s Promise
Things are simmering within economically struggling Jordan. King Abdallah clearly justified the shooting down of the Iranian drones by citing his own national security – it was purely self-defense.
Jordan’s security and sovereignty are above all else and the protection of our citizens comes first. The king assured: “Jordan will not become a battlefield, regardless of which side!”
The report even went viral on social networks that the king’s daughter, herself a trained fighter pilot, had personally brought Iranian drones out of the sky. A false report, as the royal family hastened to deny – but the report had already reached millions.
An attempt at Destabilization?
How much pressure is the king under? In any case, the government is responding with pressure. The demonstrations against Israel have since been banned and arrests have been made. The conflict between parts of the population and the royal family seems obvious.
And the attempt to divide and destabilize Jordan is part of a political agenda, says politics professor Amer Sabaileh. He asks why Iran sent its drones over Jordan of all places.
If Iran really wanted to hit Israel, it could have chosen the route via Syria or Lebanon. No, his aim was to drag Jordan into the conflict. We’ve been seeing this for a long time, whether it’s weapons smuggling, border attacks or drug smuggling originating from Syria – Iran’s goal is to destabilize Jordan.
Pressure also from Lebanon
The West’s close alliance partner in the Arab region has apparently been a thorn in Iran’s side for a long time. The already cool but still existing relationship with Jordan has cooled down to icebox temperature.
Tehran’s goal is to expand its power in the region and destabilize Western allies. Iran has great influence in Iraq, supports the Houthis in Yemen, and pulls the strings in Syria and Lebanon – the so-called axis of resistance against Israel.
But even though there is currently increasing violence in all countries, Tehran obviously does not want a major war, observers say, otherwise the Iranian drone attack would probably not have been announced several times in advance, otherwise Iran would have reacted immediately and violently militarily to Israel’s latest counterattack .
However, the verbal threatening gestures are sharp and also target Jordan, including from allied states. Hezbollah-affiliated politician Wiam Wahhab from Lebanon says Jordan is now “in the eye of the storm” and is becoming the “target of all the forces of the resistance axis.” “Jordan has positioned itself as Israel’s ally. I pray to God that Jordan comes out of this storm unscathed.”
How to keep the balance?
The threat to Jordan in the near future is obvious, say observers. Jordan must find the balance between the heated tempers in its own society and its allies – the country is practicing the balancing act and risks being drawn into the conflict itself given the latest actions. Only one scenario appears to be a way out – said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
“When the Palestinian problem is solved, we will be the first in the region to say: ‘Get out, Iran, you have no place here anymore’.” Iran is using the conflict over the Palestinians. But if it is resolved, Iran will have “no longer any reason to continue its policy of tension in the region.”
Jordan wants to avoid becoming a battlefield itself at all costs and is sticking to its alliance with the West. But as long as the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians continues without a solution, Jordan will have more and more difficulty maintaining balance and not being drawn into the vortex of the conflict – as a small country caught between all fronts.