ammonnews.net

Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Kingdom of Jordan is deeply concerned about the Obama administration’s renewed plan to train “moderate” rebels in Syria, believing the Syrian rebels are mostly extremists who espouse radical al-Qaida-like ideology, a senior Jordanian security official told WND.

The official said Obama’s decision to fight the Islamic State, or ISIS, and at the same time arm Syrian rebels was made during a compromise with Saudi Arabia in exchange for Saudi help in scaling back the ISIS threat.

Obama last night announced a sustained campaign against ISIS that could include air strikes and other action in Syria and Iraq. Democrats and Republicans in Congress reportedly support utilizing up to $4 billion to arm the Syrian rebels, with emphasis on the Free Syrian Army.

The security official said Jordan’s estimation is that the Free Syrian Army is no longer a cohesive fighting unit.

And the Jordanian kingdom fears that with U.S. acquiescence, Saudi Arabia will train and arm the al-Nusra front in Syria. Al-Nusra is allied with al-Qaida, although some al-Nusra militants have fought factional conflicts with ISIS.

The Jordanian official warned that al-Nusra shares the same values as ISIS and ultimately seeks an Islamic caliphate utilizing the tactics of brutal jihad.

Word of the Saudis helping to combat ISIS is particularly poignant since WND reported in June that, according to Jordanian and Syrian regime sources, Saudi Arabia has been arming ISIS and that the Saudis are a driving force in supporting the al-Qaida-linked group.

Jordan’s concern over the arming of Syrian rebels represents a major turnabout. Previously, Jordan reportedly aided the U.S. and other Western countries in arming the Syrian rebels.

In February 2012, WND was first to report the U.S., Turkey and Jordan were running a training base for the Syrian rebels in the Jordanian town of Safawi in the country’s northern desert region.

The report has since been corroborated by numerous other media accounts.

Last March, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported Americans were training Syrian rebels in Jordan.

Quoting what it said were training participants and organizers, Der Spiegel reported it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were with the U.S. Army, but the magazine said some organizers wore uniforms.

The training in Jordan reportedly focused on use of anti-tank weaponry.

The German magazine reported some 200 men received the training over the previous three months amid U.S. plans to train a total of 1,200 members of the Free Syrian Army in two camps in the south and the east of Jordan.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper also reported last March that U.S. trainers were aiding Syrian rebels in Jordan along with British and French instructors.

Reuters reported a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Department declined immediate comment on the German magazine’s report. The French foreign ministry and Britain’s foreign and defense ministries also would not comment to Reuters.

Jordanian officials are now concerned the sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria will spill over into their own country as well.

ISIS previously posted a video on YouTube threatening to move on Jordan and “slaughter” King Abdullah, a leader they view as an enemy of Islam.

*WND