Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Jordan Said to Help Arm Syria Rebels

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578104853961999838.html
 
 
Jordan Said to Help Arm Syria Rebels
Shipments Are Routed Through Border as Kingdom Steps Up Aid, Opposition 
Members Say; Amman Denies Connection
 
AMMAN, Jordan—Jordan has stepped up its support for neighboring Syria's 
political and military opposition, including allowing some light arms to 
flow across the border, according to Syrian rebels and an Arab official 
familiar with the operation.
 
Several shipments of arms—including assault rifles, Russian-designed 
antitank missiles and ammunition—have been delivered to the border in 
Jordanian military trucks and then taken into Syria by rebel brigades, 
according to Syrian rebel fighters. Dozens of other shipments have been 
smuggled to Syria with the covert support of Jordanian border officials, 
these people say. Saudi Arabia and Qatar pay for these arms and 
transport them to Jordan, say rebel fighters based along the 
Syria-Jordan border and a person involved in arms procurement for the 
rebels.
 
Enlarge Image
 
Reuters
Syrian refugees waiting for prayers late last month at a refugee camp in 
Mafraq, Jordan. The kingdom is letting light arms flow across its 
borders to Syria's opposition, several rebels say.
Jordan, which has long sought to stay out of Syria's growing conflict, 
denies aiding Syrian rebels militarily, either by transporting weapons 
or allowing them to move across the border.
 
The emerging weapons pipeline, a previously unreported development, 
isn't large enough to shift the balance of power in favor of rebels, say 
the rebel fighters and those who help them procure arms. The Syrian 
regime's air force and mechanized units continue to outgun lightly armed 
insurgents, they say.
 
Still, such an energized supply route through Jordan would show how even 
regional states with the risk of significant blowback are boosting 
support for the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with 
the tacit backing of Western allies. It comes as these international 
partners have identified what they consider trustworthy elements of 
Syria's opposition, to address their increasing anxiety that a 
protracted civil war in Syria is drawing in Islamist fighters and 
threatens regional stability.
 
Jordan lies at the center of those fears. It shares a long border with 
Syria, on which it depends for its trade with Turkey and Europe. It also 
has a restive domestic population, led by a religious political 
opposition that constitutes a threat to the rule of King Abdullah II, 
one of the U.S.'s strongest allies in the region.
 
 
The kingdom's growing involvement with the activities of Syrian rebels 
was outlined by six rebel officers and opposition politicians, two of 
which are directly involved in the procurement or transfer of arms into 
Syria. Several say they have met with Jordanian officials. A 
non-Jordanian Arab official confirmed the characterization of the 
kingdom's role.
 
Jordan's King Abdullah has said he supports humanitarian assistance for 
Syrians fleeing the fighting. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are 
already scattered among Jordanian cities such as Ramtha, Irbid, Mafraq 
and the capital, Amman. Some 1,000 entered Jordan in the 24 hours ending 
Friday, the United Nations said, part of a spike in refugees that saw 
9,000 Syrians flee to Turkey and 1,000 others to Lebanon.
 
The court of the king, who sets military and security policy, didn't 
respond to written questions about stepped-up political or military 
assistance, nor did Jordan's foreign ministry or prime minister's office.
 
Information minister Samih Maayteh denied that the government or 
military facilitates any activities for Syrian rebels or that the 
kingdom's relationship with Syrian opposition members it hosts had changed.
 
"This is a crisis that leaves its mark on every country in the region," 
Mr. Maayteh, an official government spokesman, said in an interview. "We 
have political and security concerns, and that is why we seek a 
political solution to protect Jordanian interests and to save [Syria 
from] the crisis."
 
For most of Syria's 20-month-old civil war, King Abdullah resisted 
pressure from patron Saudi Arabia to make his small nation into a 
front-line command center for the rebels, similar to the one erected 
along the border in Turkey. Jordan feared that overt military support 
for the revolution could provoke Syrian retaliation and endanger the 
king's grip on an already fragile domestic political situation, regional 
officials say.
 
Since the spring, however, the kingdom has played an increasing role in 
opposition military and intelligence matters, several people familiar 
with the situation say. In June, Jordan's capital served as the initial 
debriefing location for Brig. General Manaf Tlass, a high-profile 
general and personal friend of President Assad who defected that month. 
In August, then-prime minister Riad Hijab defected to Jordan.
 
Jordan has also cultivated ties with more secular-minded rebel military 
leaders in Syria's southern cities near its border. That is part of an 
effort, broadly described by U.S. and Arab officials, to mitigate an 
increasingly Islamist undercurrent in the rebel movement. U.S. and 
Jordanian officials have extended their antiterrorism cooperation to try 
to identify al Qaeda-linked elements in the Syrian antigovernment 
insurgency, officials in the region say.
 
That, they say, has driven their effort to funnel funds and arms to 
Syrian military defectors sanctioned by Jordan and its Western allies.
 
"I wouldn't say there's a black list. But there is definitely a white 
list," said a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council, 
describing rebel groups that Jordan and its Western allies are 
comfortable supporting.
 
Jordanian intelligence officials routinely host meetings with these Free 
Syrian Army leaders, helping facilitate their movement back and forth 
from Syria and discussing military strategy, people familiar with the 
meetings say. Jordan also allows American intelligence officials to 
question and cultivate contacts with defected Syrian military officials, 
these people add.
 
By late summer, Syria's conflict was exacerbating Jordan's own deepening 
economic crisis. Entrenched front lines around Aleppo in northern Syria 
had blocked Jordan's trade routes with major export partners in Syria 
and Europe, exacerbating a budget deficit and pushing up the cost of 
caring for the escalating number of Syrian refugees.
 
That was when the kingdom loosened restrictions on providing military 
aid to the Syrian rebels, according to a person familiar with the policy 
decision.
 
"They [Jordanian officials] have received guarantees for economic aid 
and security aid—that there will be decisive Arab action to back Jordan 
up if Syria seriously threatens its security or retaliates in some way," 
said a person involved in negotiations with regional countries on the 
supply of arms to Syrian rebels.
 
The Syrian groups receiving arms from the Jordanian border are now 
connected to the military councils that have been vetted by Washington 
and others, say people involved in the transaction.
 
Some of the light weapons said to be entering Syria through Jordan are 
destined for the southern Syrian border town of Dera'a, where the 
popular uprising kicked off last year. Most of the arms, though, were 
pushed north to the suburbs of Damascus, 60 miles north, in possible 
preparation for a push on the capital, according to rebel leaders.
 
Dera'a remains one of the last supply routes to rebels in the capital, 
with pathways from the Turkish border and around Homs too risky, rebel 
fighters say. They say regime forces have increased their presence in 
Dera'a in recent weeks, and many are hesitant to openly discuss the 
opening up of a new supply route they view as crucial.
 
"They know that the fall of Damascus goes through Dera'a," said one 
rebel fighter from the southern province, visiting with relatives in an 
Amman apartment.
 
—Suha Ma'ayeh in Amman, Sam Dagher in Beirut and Joe Parkinson in 
Istanbul contributed to this article.
-- 
Namib
--
I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never 
again found the Rue d'Auseil (HPL)

,

Direi che si sta preparando la mattanza finale. Cosi' forse va letta la 
dichiarazione di Assad di voler morire da siriano in Siria.
 
Non che questo lo salvi dalla responsabilita' di aver bombardato il 
proprio popolo con un intero esercito.
 
Sarebbe meglio che venisse processato, ma a questo punto forse non e' 
piu' possibile.
 
Ieri gia' i ribelli tentavano di bombardare il palazzo presidenziale.
 
Am.