Jordan blasts foreign media reports on Syria rebel training as "baseless"
22-06-2013 03:49 PM
Ammon News - * PM denies Syrian opposition trained in Jordan
AMMONNEWS - Jordan's Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Saturday denied reports that Syrian opposition forces are receiving military training on Jordanian territories.
During a meeting with correspondents of foreign news agencies in Jordan on Saturday, Ensour told journalists that Jordan only deals with Syrians as refugees, and denied reports that Syrian rebels are being trained inside Jordan.
Earlier on Saturday, an official source at the Jordan Armed Forces blasted foreign media reports about US military and CIA training of Syrian rebel forces as "illusionary stories."
The source from JAF's Moral Guidance department responded to information reported by the German Press Agency DPA as "completely false," accusing foreign media of rushing to publish reports without authenticating the information.
"No one has the authority to give statements at JAF except the Moral Guidance Department," the source, who himself refused his name to be disclosed, said, while blasting foreign media reports for publishing statements reportedly attributed to sources "that refuse to disclose their names, or request their name not to be published."
DPA had reported on Saturday that Jordanian military officials disclosed information that the US military is expanding the scope of training provided for Syrian opposition forces.
The report attributed statements to the Jordanian military officials that the US military is preparing to train over 5,000 Free Syrian Army fighters.
The report also said that the US sent nearly 2,000 additional trainers and advisors to northern Jordan to train the rebels.
Also on Friday, Jordan's government spokesperson Mohammad Momani denied information reported by the Los Angeles Times of CIA operatives and military operations officials conducting training for Syrian opposition forces.
Momani, who is also the Minister of Media Affairs, dismissed the report as "baseless," stressing that "we do not deal with statements attributed to unknown sources."