AMMAN – The foiling of a planned Al-Qaeda terror plot in Jordan underscores a new subplot in the story of the Arab Spring: Things are heating up for King Abdullah II, a Western-oriented monarch who has run a business-friendly, pragmatic monarchy with some trappings of democracy. Jordan, a key US ally that sits at a strategic crossroads between neighboring Syria, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Saudi Arabia, has so far weathered 22 months of street protests calling for a wider public say in politics. But this week's announcement that Jordanian authorities had thwarted an Al-Qaeda plan to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country has raised fears that extremists could take advantage of growing calls for change to foment violence. The king also has been working overtime to fend off a host of domestic challenges, including a Muslim Brotherhood boycott of parliamentary elections, increasing opposition from his traditional Bedouin allies and an inability to keep the Syrian civil war from spilling over the border. So far, Abdullah has largely maintained control, partly by relinquishing some of his powers to parliament and amending the country's 60-year-old constitution. His Western-trained security forces have been able to keep protests from getting out of hand. And most in the opposition remain loyal to the king. The stakes are high: Abdullah is a close friend of the United States and has been at the forefront in its global war on terrorism, including in Afghanistan. The kingdom hosts the largest Palestinian population outside the West Bank. Concern over Jordan's stability was underlined last month, when its US, British and French allies quickly dispatched their military experts to help Jordanian commandos devise plans to shield the population in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria. Jordan is worried that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad might lose control over his chemical weapons in the civil war and that his stock could subsequently fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah. More than 210,000 Syrian refugees also have fled to the kingdom to escape the violence at home, straining basic services like water, electricity and the health care system. In the past three months, dozens of Jordanian policemen were wounded in violent riots at a dust-filled refugee camp packed with 35,000 Syrians near the northern border. A growing number of stray Syrian missiles also have fallen on Jordanian villages in the north in recent weeks, wounding several civilians as Assad widened his offensive against rebel holdouts near the Jordanian frontier. A Jordanian border patrol officer also was shot dead Monday during army clashes with eight militants who sought to illegally cross a border fence into Syria. Hours before the clash, Jordan announced that authorities had arrested 11 suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants for allegedly planning to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country with explosives and rockets. “The Jordanian people can never enjoy complete stability when our country is surrounded by wars and uprisings,” said Yousef Matarneh, a 45-year-old civil servant. “If you want to change Jordan for the better, there is a chance, and that chance is through the upcoming elections,” King Abdullah told a gathering of 3,000 prominent politicians and businessmen Tuesday. “There is a way, and that way is through the next parliament.” Many Jordanians are keen to avoid the turmoil that followed the revolution in Egypt, which led to the election of a Muslim Brotherhood member as president of the Arab world's most populous nation. “We will not trade our stability for anything. People in the region envy us for it,” said 25-year-old Mohammed Shneikat, who works at a music store in Amman. The king's supporters point to voter registration that has exceeded 2.3 million, or 33 percent of the country's 6 million population. – AP
