AMMAN – Jordan's announcement that it has foiled an Al-Qaeda plot to bomb the capital highlights the threat to Washington's ally from fighters hardened by conflict in neighboring Syria, and the danger of Damascus trying to export its crisis. The kingdom is no stranger to turmoil. For decades it has navigated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on its western border and more recently bloodshed in Iraq to the east, which spilled over to Jordan with hotel bombings in Amman seven years ago. But the Syrian civil war could pose the gravest threat yet to Jordan's King Abdullah, whether or not rebel fighters succeed in toppling President Bashar Al-Assad after 42 years of Assad family rule. Mahmoud Kharabsheh, a prominent politician with an intelligence background, says Syria's role in letting Al-Qaeda fighters head to Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion has reinforced fears that Damascus could try the same in Jordan. “The Syrian regime will not leave a stone unturned to destabilize the kingdom. The Syrian regime is determined to export its crisis to neighboring countries to ... destabilize our security,” said Kharabsheh, a member of the outgoing Jordanian parliament. At the height of the bloodshed in Iraq, Damascus emptied its prisons of many radicals and let them cross the border to fight the Western forces. This allowed Assad's secular government to get rid of domestic opponents, at least temporarily, and indirectly pin down forces of its US enemies. Kharabsheh said the Syrian government might again try to use its ideological opposite, Al-Qaeda, as it struggles for survival. “They are two imminent dangers and their interests could easily coincide to destabilize Jordan,” he said. Scores of Syrians had been arrested in recent months after gathering information and acting as agents provocateurs in Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, which houses tens of thousands of Syrians who have fled their country, he added. Then on Oct. 21, Jordan state TV said intelligence services had foiled the plot by an Al-Qaeda-linked cell to bomb shopping centres and assassinate Western diplomats in Amman, using weapons and explosives smuggled from Syria. – Reuters
