Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - By R.B. Sinclair -At a press conference held today at Jordan's Special Operations headquarter in Tabarbour, Brigadier General Fahd al-Damen and Major General Robert Catalanotti repeatedly said that Eager Lion has nothing to do with the current events in Syria and that there are no plans to interfere in Syria's affairs. Their assurances came in response to a question inquiring why most countries participating in the Exercise have called for military intervention in Syria.

Major General Catalanotti began by thanking his hosts, and singled out BG Al-Damen with compliments and his deep feelings of friendship. He said. 'I am proud to be an American soldier, today, here in Jordan '

In its fourth year, Eager Lion has inflated to over 13,000 " brotherly and friendly" participants from 22 countries and Nato. Exercises for irregular warfare and conventional air, land and sea operations will be conducted for the next two weeks. Four vessels and troops from six countries will conduct a naval exercise in Aqaba next week. The Generals denied reports of any Israeli personnel participation in Eager Lion, even as observers.

Referring to the noticeable absence of Iraq, MG Catalanotti said the Iraqis intended and planned to participate, but decided to use their forces ,locally, for their own requirement. Iraq will rejoin Eager Lion in 2015.

The worsening situation along Jordan's porous borders and the steady increase in the numbers of Jihadi infiltrators and arms smugglers raised questions about Eager Lion's effectiveness on the ground. As for the civil servants involvement in Eager Lion, BG Al-Damen expressed no fear that this military-to-military exercise could "militarize" civilian authorities in the government and law enforcement dealing with public (police).

When asked whether the US has any concerns that a number of participating "partners" are dictatorial in nature and known to oppress their own people, GM Catalanotti said: " I defer to the Jordanians, they decide who to invite."

Jordan pays for the majority of Eager Lion cost. It is an investment so we can work together in case a crisis erupts. " It builds in our opportunity to look at our capability with integrated air missile defense systems, that is what we are doing with this exercise." MG Catalanotti added; " a good amount of this exercise deals with unity effort of command to come together with many nations participating both irregular and conventional warfare."


A question that remained unanswered: Who's the enemy Jordanians are 'Investing" against?

** Correction: The utterance by MG Catalanotti that sounded like " stupid questions" was in fact "its two good questions." We thank the US embassy or sending us a clearer version of the recording and we apologize for the failure of our equipment.