Ammon News - By Heba Malkawi

AMMONNEWS – Jordan on Sunday announced the commencement of the 2013 Eager Lion multinational military exercises that will be held in the kingdom between June 9-21 with the participation of 19 nations and over 8,000 troops.

The annual military exercises are not related to the ongoing conflict in neighboring Syria, senior US and Jordanian military officials said, noting that they are purely military exercises aimed to enhance military cooperation and readiness among participating nations.

In a press conference held at the Jordan Special Operations Command Headquarters in Amman on Sunday, MG Awni El-Edwan, the Operations Chief of Staff at the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) said that no exercises will be held at the northern Jordanian borders with Syria, but will be conducted mainly in the central and southern parts of the kingdom.

The officer emphasized that the Syrian opposition “has not and will not participate in this exercise,” stressing that Jordan is a neutral country.

“The exercise participants are nations, we deal with countries, not with parties or opposition,” El-Edwan said.

In regards to the US Patriot missile batteries and F-16 fighter jets that were recently sent to Jordan, El-Edwan stressed that any decision to request the military equipment or personnel to remain in Jordan after the exercises end will be a political decision to be taken by the Jordanian leadership after officially requesting it from Washington.

“Our political leadership decides for the weapons to stay behind, we [the military] follow and execute orders,” El-Edwan said.

If Jordan officially requests that the Patriot missile batteries and F-16’s are to remain in Jordan, such a request would have to be made to Washington DC to determine their deployment and plan the numbers of US forces required to support it, MG Robert Catalanotti, the Director of Exercises and Training at the US Headquarters CENTCOM said.

Catalanotti announced that 4,500 US troops will participate in the military exercises, reiterating that an average of “a couple of hundred” US soldiers are currently in Jordan, aside from troops participating in the 2013 Eager Lion.

In reiterating that the exercises have nothing to do with the ongoing conflict in neighboring Syria or any other country in the region, El-Edwan said that the planning for the multinational exercises began in 2010 prior to the beginning of the Syrian crisis.

Both military officials declined to disclose the numbers of Patriot Missile Batteries or F-16 fighter jets that will be used in the exercises, with MG El-Edwan stressing that the number of Patriot missile batteries will be “enough to serve the purpose of the exercise,” adding that they were not brought because of the crisis in Syria but rather purely for the Eager Lion exercises.

Regarding the location of deploying the patriot missile batteries used in the exercise, El-Edwan said that they will be deployed “in the right place” to fulfill the objectives of the exercise.

MG Catalanotti also declined to disclose the number of F-16 fighter jets brought to Jordan.

Regarding recent remarks made by the Syrian Ambassador in Jordan Bahjat Suleiman in criticism of the deployment of Patriot missiles in Jordan, El-Edwan said that the Ambassador is free to remark as he wishes, reiterating that “Jordan’s Armed Forces have the capability to protect Jordanian land, sea, and air.”

Both officers said that the exercises have no specific scenario to counter a real operation that is going on around Jordan, reiterating that the objective is to strengthen military to military relations.

The exercises will also include training on eliminating the effects of chemical strikes.

The objectives of the exercises are to strengthen the multilateral military relations between participating countries, and to train various military and security units and NGOs to focus on irregular warfare and national security challenges such as counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, strategic communications, integration of whole of government and NGOs, and focus on wide range of offensive and defensive operations of warfare.

Eager Lion is an annual multi-national exercise, starting in 2011, designed to enhance cooperation between the military and security units along with NGOs and civilian agencies of participating countries focusing on issues such as integrated air defense, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian relief, and security challenges.

The 2013 training will focus on a joint task force, which will fall under Jordanian leadership.

The exercise also includes multi-lateral field training exercise, table training exercise, various workshops and seminars conducted on sidelines of exercises to meet the overall objectives of exercise.

It will include approximately 8,000 personnel from 19 countries with a total number of 4,500 US forces from the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps working alongside approximately 3,000 participants of the JAF and 500 multi-national partners from Bahrain, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Italy, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Over 7,000 civilian personnel from governmental and non-governmental agencies will also take part in the exercises.

Major equipment utilized during the exercises include an Amphibious Assault Ship, AV-8B II V/STOL Aircraft, C-130 HERCULES, F18 Hornet, F16 Falcon, Patriot Missile System and the V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.