https://arab.news/j8vp8
- Analysts say delegation trip will mark “most significant contact” since civil war began in 2011
- Jordan looking to build relations in hopes of finding an end to fighting
AMMAN: A high-level Syrian security delegation is scheduled to visit Jordan in the coming days, local media reported on Sunday, marking a historic first high-profile state visit to the kingdom since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Jordanian news website alsaa.net reported that the delegation will be headed by Syria’s Chief of Staff Gen. Ali Ayoub.
Citing unnamed senior government sources, the news website claimed that the Syrian delegation will arrive to Amman during the next few days.
Despite Arab News reaching out for comment, Jordan’s Minister of State for Media Affairs Sakher Dudin was unavailable.
Stopping short from giving exact information on who will be attending, a government source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Arab News, however, that a “high-ranking Syrian delegation is set to visit Jordan soon.”
In past months, Jordan has been viewed as warming to Syria, with observers interpreting the strategy as a sign of the refugee-burdened kingdom’s weariness of international community inaction on Syria.
Jordan recently announced that it would reopen the Jaber-Nassib border crossing with Syria to operate at full capacity, but had to put it off as a result of the security escalation in the Syrian bordering town of Daraa.
Syrian Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Bassam Tohme was at a meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Bishr Khasawneh last week in Amman along with counterparts from Egypt and Lebanon, to discuss mechanisms to deliver Egyptian gas through Jordan and Syria to Lebanon.
“Jordan is required to deal with Syria using a different approach, with no one offering solutions to the more than ten years of war,” strategic analyst Amer Sabaileh said.
“Jordan needs to explore new opportunities when it comes to finding a political solution to the Syrian war, Sabaileh told Arab News, citing the security, economic and social consequences of the Syrian conflict on Jordan, primarily the refugee crisis.
According to the UNHCR, Jordan is home to about 650,000 registered Syrian refugees.
Political analyst Awni Dawood said that the proposal to export Egyptian gas to Lebanon through Jordan and Syria was initiated by the kingdom and was among the major topics of Jordanian King Abdullah’s meetings with US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in July and August.
Dawood said that Jordan has sought an exception from the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which imposes sanctions on the Syrian government, including President Bashar Assad, for war crimes against the Syrian population.
“Jordan’s quest for exception from the Caesar law is for humanitarian purposes, seeking better living conditions for people of the region,” Dawood said.