Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The capture of the Nasib crossing on the border between Syria and Jordan by the armed groups has posed new challenges for Jordan and significantly increased the possibility of a direct confrontation.

The fall of the border point increases the risk of other border towns falling or at least making their capture more attractive to terrorist groups and therefore increases the potential for military confrontation with the Jordanian Army.

Jordan needs a strategy to deal with the long-term crisis, as it is increasingly being exploited in ways that increase the risk and impact on its territorial integrity. Jordan must also prevent the formation of any logistics base on its borders by the terrorists, as this would threaten security within Jordan’s borders. The current developments raise questions and potential threats that could change at any moment. These groups or even just some of them could shift strategy towards Jordan, their presence could be incubating terrorism within Jordan and obviously they could lead to open violence on the border.

The closer these terrorist groups are to the border, the more serious the security challenges for Jordan. With news that Al Nusra has pledged allegiance to Daesh in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus, it is getting more difficult to predict the changes and developments and how they will impact the region.

While Jordan has managed to avoid direct conflict with these groups so far, this may not last for long, as violence could break out and spread across a vast geographical area very quickly. Jordan could be forced into confrontation to defend its borders, which could quickly devolve into fierce fighting all along the border.

Jordan must monitor the developments in Syria and take preventive measures to protect border towns from being slid into conflict zones like the Lebanese border city, Arsal. It is in Jordan’s strategic interests to avoid this kind of situation and protect the border towns from falling into the hands of terrorists.

*Khaleej Times