Middle East on Fire is more than just Riots - Syria Fires into Jordan

[longknife]

by Douglas V. Gibbs @ Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary give us this:

Syria fires into Jordan, sparking clashes

Syria moves its Golan Heights brigade to the Jordanian border

The armed forces of Syria and Jordan clashed Saturday after Syria fired into Jordanian territory, where thousands of refugees have fled from an 18-month-long civil war between the Bashar Assad regime and opposition fighters.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, the Syrian army has moved its Unit 61 brigade — whose main function is to block any possible attack from Israel — from the Golan Heights to the Jordanian border.

Uh, didn't I tell you this was going to get worse?

 

[irosie91]

oh gee-----worse yes----but I really did not think that syria would get involved in Jordan WHY? Jordan is not going to help ASSAD as far as I understand the situation Is assad trying to DESTABALIZE JORDAN? That might be at the direction of IRAN I believe that Iran would be happy to get rid of Abdullah ------and get access to jordan via Iraq and its shiite activists ----I think-----of course I may be wrong

 

[waltky]

Iran interfering in Syrian affairs...

Hillary Clinton: Iran will do 'whatever it takes' to prop up Syrian 'crony'
September 28, 2012 - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the US would send another $45 million in aid to Syrian rebels. But that pales in comparison to what Iran is doing to save President Assad.

According to the United States, a lack of coordination among the various rebel groups taking control of growing swaths of Syria is one of their principle weaknesses. To help remedy that, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday announced an additional $15 million in communications equipment to enhance cooperation among Syria’s opposition players – from rebel fighters to the new “revolutionary councils" popping up to administer local services in liberated zones.

Secretary Clinton unveiled the new aid package at a New York meeting of countries working with the Syrian opposition. And she used the meeting to call attention to the threat she said Iran poses with its deepening involvement in the Syrian civil war.
“Let’s be very frank here,” Clinton said. “The [Bashar al-Assad] regime’s most important lifeline is Iran.”

Adding that “there is no longer any doubt that Tehran will do whatever it takes to protect its proxy and crony in Damascus,” she urged Syria’s neighbors to take the necessary precautions to stop Iran from smuggling weapons and materiel into Syria through their air space or territory. Clinton also announced $30 million in additional humanitarian aid for Syria’s beleaguered civilian population. Experts estimate that as many as 1.5 million Syrians may now be internally displaced, while soon as many as 700,000 will have left the country.

Friday’s meeting underscored how the major Western powers supporting the Syrian opposition continue to limit their aid to nonlethal military and humanitarian assistance, as well as some advisory help for civilians. By contrast, Iran and other outside players supporting President Assad are supplying him with arms and even boots on the ground.

Recently, commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps bragged that they are on the ground in Syria, and US intelligence officials say Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite Muslim extremist organization is also operating inside Syria on Assad’s behalf, though it is not thought to be carrying out military operations there. On the rebels’ side, countries aligned against Assad – including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar – are said to be providing some arms, but not the heavier weaponry the rebels have been seeking.

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[RetiredGySgt]

Iran interfering in Syrian affairs...

Hillary Clinton: Iran will do 'whatever it takes' to prop up Syrian 'crony'
September 28, 2012 - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the US would send another $45 million in aid to Syrian rebels. But that pales in comparison to what Iran is doing to save President Assad.

According to the United States, a lack of coordination among the various rebel groups taking control of growing swaths of Syria is one of their principle weaknesses. To help remedy that, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday announced an additional $15 million in communications equipment to enhance cooperation among Syria’s opposition players – from rebel fighters to the new “revolutionary councils" popping up to administer local services in liberated zones.

Secretary Clinton unveiled the new aid package at a New York meeting of countries working with the Syrian opposition. And she used the meeting to call attention to the threat she said Iran poses with its deepening involvement in the Syrian civil war.
“Let’s be very frank here,” Clinton said. “The [Bashar al-Assad] regime’s most important lifeline is Iran.”

Adding that “there is no longer any doubt that Tehran will do whatever it takes to protect its proxy and crony in Damascus,” she urged Syria’s neighbors to take the necessary precautions to stop Iran from smuggling weapons and materiel into Syria through their air space or territory. Clinton also announced $30 million in additional humanitarian aid for Syria’s beleaguered civilian population. Experts estimate that as many as 1.5 million Syrians may now be internally displaced, while soon as many as 700,000 will have left the country.

Friday’s meeting underscored how the major Western powers supporting the Syrian opposition continue to limit their aid to nonlethal military and humanitarian assistance, as well as some advisory help for civilians. By contrast, Iran and other outside players supporting President Assad are supplying him with arms and even boots on the ground.

Recently, commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps bragged that they are on the ground in Syria, and US intelligence officials say Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite Muslim extremist organization is also operating inside Syria on Assad’s behalf, though it is not thought to be carrying out military operations there. On the rebels’ side, countries aligned against Assad – including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar – are said to be providing some arms, but not the heavier weaponry the rebels have been seeking.

MORE

We never learn. Bosnia and the other break away countries from Yugoslavia proved that UN Peace keepers were powerless and that NOT providing weapons to the right side resulted in atrocities and years of prolonged conflict.

IF we support the rebels ARM them. Or stay out of the conflict completely. We are half assing it again.

 

[irosie91]

I support staying OUT OF IT COMPLETELY------handing equiptment over to the rebels is a mistake-------it would be far better to sit back and -----PERHAPS fight off actual troops or shipments from Iran to Syria ---on the way to Syria -----but not IN SYRIA ITSELF----as far as handing stuff to the rebels-----that is how we made the taliban and their friends "AL QUEIDA" powerful in Afghanistan

 

[waltky]

Shhh, don't tell nobody - it's a secret...

U.S. Military Secretly Sent to Jordan to Help With Crisis in Syria
October 9, 2012 WASHINGTON — The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons and be positioned should the turmoil in Syria expand into a wider conflict.

The task force, which has been led by a senior American officer, is based at a Jordanian military training center built into an old rock quarry north of Amman. It is now largely focused on helping Jordanians handle the estimated 180,000 Syrian refugees who have crossed the border and are severely straining the country’s resources. American officials familiar with the operation said the mission also includes drawing up plans to try to insulate Jordan, an important American ally in the region, from the upheaval in Syria and to avoid the kind of clashes now occurring along the border of Syria and Turkey.

The officials said the idea of establishing a buffer zone between Syria and Jordan — which would be enforced by Jordanian forces on the Syrian side of the border and supported politically and perhaps logistically by the United States — had been discussed. But at this point the buffer is only a contingency. The Obama administration has declined to intervene in the Syrian conflict beyond providing communications equipment and other nonlethal assistance to the rebels opposing the government of President Bashar al-Assad. But the outpost near Amman could play a broader role should American policy change. It is less than 35 miles from the Syrian border and is the closest American military presence to the conflict.

Officials from the Pentagon and Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, declined to comment on the task force or its mission. A spokesman for the Jordanian Embassy in Washington would also not comment on Tuesday. As the crisis in Syria has deepened, there has been mounting concern in Washington that the violence could spread through the region. Over the past week, Syria and Turkey have exchanged artillery and mortar fire across Syria’s northern border, which has been a crossing point for rebel fighters. In western Syria, intense fighting recently broke out in villages near the border crossing that leads to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. To the east, the Syrian government has lost control of some border crossings, including the one near Al Qaim in Iraq.

Jordan has also been touched by the fighting. Recent skirmishes have broken out between the Syrian military and Jordanians guarding the country’s northern border, where many families have ties to Syria. In August, a 4-year-old girl in a Jordanian border town was injured when a Syrian shell struck her house, and there are concerns in Jordan that a sharp upsurge in the fighting in Syria might lead to an even greater influx of refugees. Jordan, which was one of the first Arab countries to call for Mr. Assad’s resignation, has become increasingly concerned that Islamic militants coming to join the fight in Syria could cross the porous border between the two countries.

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