The Israeli Air Force (IAF), in a recent airstrike, destroyed three cross-border smuggling routes from Syria to Lebanon, which were being used by Iran to bring ship weapons to still-functioning Hezbollah terrorist cells. The Israeli strike took place just hours before a ceasefire took effect on November 26 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Iran's special forces units, however, will no doubt continue their past efforts to smuggle arms through Jordan to Palestinian terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria ("the West Bank"). These smuggling operations will still enable terrorists there to kill Israelis and further entrench an atmosphere of fear among the hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens who live in Judea and Samaria.
In one publicized incident, Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet, seized caches of Iranian weapons being smuggled transported across Jordan's unguarded borders. The arms included anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, as well as Semtex and C-4 plastic explosives. The Shin Bet reported that the Special Operation Unit 4000 of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been tasked with that mission. The latest shipment of weapons bound for Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria, intercepted and seized by Israel on November 27, 2004, was initiated from an IRGC camp in Syria.
Iran and its allies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have also been attempting to recruit Jordanians as agents. The project appears an attempt to destabilize the rule of the Hashemite dynasty of King Abdullah II by engaging in acts of sabotage. Jordan has also been under political pressure and military threats from Iran and Iranian proxy militias in Iraq.
If Jordan succumbs to Iran's designs, it would create yet another front against Israel. Kata'ib Hezbollah, the leading Iran-backed terrorist group in Iraq, has pledged to arm 12,000 Jordanian volunteers if they would embrace the anti-Israeli "resistance." Hamas official Khaled Mashaal also has been broadcasting to Jordan messages urging Jordanian citizens to join the "resistance."
Iran's increased interference in Jordan comes at a problematic time for the Jordanian government. Recent parliamentary elections reflect gains by the opposition. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic Action Front, for instance, tripled its representation in Jordan's parliament, giving it one-fifth of the seats.
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