Jordanians clear up Iranian drone debris in Middle East war wake-up call

Rocket debris and shrapnel landed in Jordan as the military shot Iranian missiles out of the sky on Saturday night – Musab Subuh

Unable to fall asleep, Oun Alka’abneh was scrolling on his phone late Saturday when he heard loud bangs, then a piercing explosion – all of which jolted him upright.

He rushed to peer out the window in Amman, the capital of Jordan, worried that someone had been hit on the street by a car.

What he saw came as a shock. A giant chunk from an Iranian projectile – shot out of the skies by the Jordanian military – that had crashed right outside his house. Shrapnel scattered up and down the block.

Iran was launching more than 300 drones and missiles in the direction of Israel that night in an unprecedented, retaliatory attack. Many of those projectiles were soaring right over Jordan, which shares the world’s longest border with Israel and the West Bank, a Palestinian territory, at nearly 200 miles.

“I thought a lot of things that night,” said Mr Alka’abneh. “But I just never imagined that a rocket would land in my neighbourhood.”

Police showed up within minutes and cordoned off the area. Eventually, Mr Alka’abneh wandered outside to take a look, collecting some small fragments.

The crash crater was covered with new asphalt on Tuesday morning, and Mr Alka’abneh’s street in Amman’s Marj al-Hamam neighbourhood appeared to resume its usual, quiet hum.

A hole in the road created by crashing debris is covered with new asphalt – Musab Subuh

But tension hangs thick in the air across Jordan – a country of more than 11 million people – caught between regional arch-rivals Israel directly to the west, and Iran further afield to the east.

Worries abound over how Israel will choose to respond. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates called for maximum “self-restraint” in the Middle East to avoid “the dangers of war and its dire consequences,” in a rare joint statement.

Concerns are brewing as well that Jordan’s decision to shoot down Iranian projectiles will be viewed as support for Israel, which could put the country in the crosshairs of Iran.

These actions have confused the West, given Jordan’s longtime support for the Palestinians, pushed off their land in 1948 in what the latter remembers as the nakba, or “the catastrophe,” when the modern state of Israel was established.

Many Palestinian refugees then decamped for neighbouring Jordan, and today make up about half of the latter country’s population.

But Jordan has underscored, however, that it would have done the same no matter which nation or entity fired drones and missiles into its sovereign airspace.

Jordan’s decision to shoot down Iranian projectiles could be viewed as support for Israel – Musab Subuh

Shooting down Iranian projectiles was as much a message to Iran as it was to Israel – that Jordan won’t allow this dispute to play out on its territory.

Jordan will not become “the theatre of a regional war,” Jordanian King Abdullah II stressed to Joe Biden, the US president, in a call this week.

“Jordan took a clear and sharp stance against Israel…calling out the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza,” said Omar al-Ayasrah, a member of Jordan’s parliament.

But “when Iran tried to strike Israel, we prevented its missiles and drones from reaching Israel through our airspace; this is due to the consideration that we reject the notion of being used as a battleground in the conflict”.

In reality, Jordan considers both Iran and Israel its “major enemies in the region” as they have significant influence in all surrounding countries, said Mohamad Hamad al-Katatsheh, the dean of the school of international affairs at the University of Jordan.

Iran has serious sway in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, where it backs various militant groups that have sowed chaos in the Middle East for years – including in the current war between Israel and Hamas, which began last October.

Mohamad Hamad al-Katatsheh says Jordan considers both Iran and Israel its ‘major enemies in the region’ – Musab Subuh

Israel, on the other hand, has control over Jerusalem – another important city in the region.

“We stand by Gaza and the Palestinians,” said Mr al-Katatsheh. “But in this latest dispute of Iran’s flying projectiles, we feel that Iran is trying to drag Jordan into a war that we have no relation to.

“Even if Iran’s aim is to ‘liberate Palestine’ it shouldn’t be through invading Jordan’s sovereign airspace, and at the expense of our country.”

If Iran succeeds in chipping away at Jordan’s sovereignty, and its borders become less secure and more porous, then that “benefits only Israel, the other enemy, which is trying to kick the Palestinians out, and turn Jordan into a replacement for Palestinians”.

Jordan shares the same view as Egypt, whose Sinai peninsula borders southern Gaza – that the Palestinians should be allowed to remain where they are on their land, rather than be displaced into neighbouring nations.

Iranian rocket debris landing in Amman this week underlined Jordan’s unique position geographically and geopolitically, long forcing the government, and its ruling monarchy, to toe the line.

In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, following in Egypt’s footsteps – a watershed moment that ended decades of war between the two nations.

Over the years, Jordan has also increased a security partnership with Washington – the depths of which were revealed earlier this year when a drone hit an American military outpost in northeast Jordan, called Tower 22, and killed three US soldiers.

But public sentiment in Jordan has soured significantly against Israel and the US, its strongest ally, over the last six months as the war in Gaza rages on.

Protests have swept through the streets of Amman, with demonstrators gathering at the US and Israeli embassies. Crowds have chanted “Death to America,” a surprising development in a country that has had a solid, strategic partnership with Washington for many years.

Protests erupted in Amman in October over the war in Gaza – MUSSA HATTAR/AFP

Questions, too, have swirled over Jordan’s relations with Israel.

But maintaining its peace treaty with Israel allows Jordan to “get humanitarian aid into Gaza, to be able to serve and help them, and to raise the Palestinian cause in the international community,” said Mr al-Ayasrah.

Indeed, Jordan has been key in funnelling humanitarian aid into Gaza – when such deliveries are allowed by Israel – sending supplies via ground visits and air drops.

On Tuesday alone, a food aid convoy of 75 trucks made their way into Gaza with the assistance of the Jordanian military.

“Everybody is angry about what’s happening in Gaza, and wants this to stop. Even I am a little upset about the peace treaty,” said Gassan al-Qawasmi, 38, a lawyer of Palestinian origin.

“But Jordan is a small country with limited resources in a sensitive location; this should be kept in place for us to remain safe,” he said. “The US is the devil’s head, but it is the most powerful country in the world…[and] we need to survive; we cannot skip out of this alliance.”

In essence, Jordan is a buffer state in a region that has long been volatile, and is now perhaps under more threat than ever – particularly as Iran has sought to sow greater influence in the country, as it has done elsewhere in the Middle East.

“This is what we have seen in Syria, what we saw in Iraq before,” said Barakat al-Zyoud, a Jordanian journalist. “In all these countries, when order failed…radical armed groups proliferated, and caused even further chaos, refugees and bloodshed.”

Across Amman, sentiments are mixed. Some, like Mr Alka’abneh, feel safe knowing the Jordanian air force is strong enough to shoot down hostile Iranian missiles.

Others, like Nazik Tarawneh, 68, who also lives on a street where debris fell, remains distressed over what happens next.

“The war needs to stop in Gaza; then there will be hope, peace, and safety,” said Ms Tarawneh. “The whole region is under threat because of that [war].”

“In Jordan, we are not used to this – this is the first time we have felt directly threatened…I was so afraid,” she said. “I hope Israel will not do the same – use Jordanian airspace – when they retaliate.”

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