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Ammon News - al-shorfa- Jordan has been working on multiple fronts to confront al-Qaeda threats to the kingdom, blocking attempted attacks on Jordanian soil and preventing extremists from travelling to Syria to fight alongside jihadist groups, experts said.

Jordan has been the target of several terrorist schemes in the past years, with authorities thwarting a major al-Qaeda attack in October 2012 that included shopping centres, cafés and diplomatic missions in Amman, The Jordan Times reported.

Security forces arrested 11 Jordanian nationals in connection with the intended attack who had travelled to Syria and returned with mortars and explosives they planned to use. The detainees were alleged to have "active ties" with al-Qaeda in Iraq, the newspaper said.

In recent months, security forces have jailed a number of Jordanians convicted of trying to cross into Syria to fight alongside al-Qaeda affiliates such as Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN). In September, more than a dozen men were tried and found guilty of seeking to join JAN.

These included six extremists jailed on September 18th for "carrying out acts that would expose Jordan and its citizens to the risk of acts of aggression and revenge".

"Since the beginning of 2012, […] Jordanian authorities began to deal with infiltration, border-crossing and both arms and human trafficking with an iron fist," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Rumman, a researcher at the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies.

The authorities use sophisticated techniques to monitor such movement and have arrested many people who tried to cross into Syria or smuggle weapons across the border, he said.

JORDAN 'NOT AN INCUBATOR FOR TERRORISM'

"A combination of factors has helped Jordan avert terrorist attacks and foil them in their early stages," said Faisal Malkawi, a Jordanian writer specialising in political and security affairs.

Foremost among these are Jordan's moderate stances, he said.

"Jordan is not an incubator for terrorism," Malkawi said. "Jordanian society is moderate and differentiates between terrorism and self-defence, and does not market foreign agendas. Therefore public awareness of the dangers of terrorism helps the state a lot."

The high competence of the Jordanian security services is another factor, he added, as they have helped to thwart terrorist plots not only in the kingdom but also in other countries.

"Jordan is distinguished in that it maintains a rigorous counter-terrorism defence system owing to its long experience in dealing with such attacks," Malkawi said.

"It succeeded in past years in uncovering terrorist operations in their early stages and spared the country from harm, and in addition has maintained close co-operation and co-ordination with sisterly and friendly countries in the area of counter-terrorism and the exchange of expertise," he added.

COUNTER-TERRORISM MECHANISMS ARE IN PLACE

Jordan has been spared "the scourge of terrorism" thanks to several interrelated factors, said Linda Maaia, a journalist specialising in security affairs.

Among these factors is the kingdom's security co-ordination with its allies and its "long experience in countering terrorism and its acclaimed international contribution to this issue", she said.

The kingdom has successfully thwarted numerous attacks in the past, she said, adding that Jordan is home to one of the largest international counter-terrorism centres, the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre.

Jihadists occasionally attempt to cross into neighbouring countries from Jordan, but the kingdom "rejects that and monitors and brings to trial anyone proven to be involved in terrorist attacks", Maaia said.

Alongside its counter-terrorism efforts, Jordan has spearheaded a number of initiatives to promote common ground and peace among the various religions and sects in the Middle East.

These include the 2004 Amman Message (a message released by King Abdullah calling for peace and tolerance in the Muslim world), World Interfaith Harmony Week, proposed by the king in 2010 and later adopted by the UN, and its participation in the "A Common Word" Muslim/Christian dialogue initiative.