By Anas al-Bar | 2024-06-01

Iran-aligned militias have increased their presence along the Syrian border with Jordan in an apparent attempt to intimidate the kingdom and rattle its stability, local sources said.

In May, around 1,200 Syrian troops and militiamen from the Fatemiyoun Division and Zainabiyoun Brigade, which are controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), redeployed from Damascus to southern Syria.

A further 100 elements of the Iran-backed Iraqi militia Harakat al-Nujaba crossed from Iraq into Syria via Sikak crossing in al-Hari and were subsequently deployed in Sweida, according to the Eye of the Euphrates website.

The website estimates the total number of fighters deployed in the area between eastern Sweida and the Yarmouk Basin in Daraa to be in the thousands.

Lebanese Hizbullah and the IRGC have 82 military sites in this region, the Jusoor Center for Studies said in a November 24 report.

Iranian proxies in this area direct the arms and drug smuggling operations into Jordan and onward, protect Iranian weapon depots and air defense systems, and carry out reconnaissance and espionage missions, it said.

In mid-May, the kingdom announced it had seized weapons Iran-backed groups in Syria were sending to an extremist cell inside Jordan.

Jordanian sources described the smuggling operation as a "conspiracy" aimed at destabilizing the kingdom.

The kingdom also has been counteracting plans by Iranian groups to use its territory as a warehouse and main corridor for drugs smuggled from Syria.

Jordanian customs foiled an attempt to smuggle 800,000 Captagon pills into the kingdom via the Jaber crossing with Syria, according to a May 8 statement.

'Pressures and provocations'

Iran has made continuous efforts to undermine Jordan's security, Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies director Ghazi Faisal Hussein told Al-Fassel.

Despite this, he said, "the kingdom is still distancing itself from the strategy of the Iranian Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) and the Iranian axis."

Iran plans to threaten Jordan's security and sovereignty "by transferring Iranian weapons to extremist parties and groups in the kingdom whose goal is to undermine stability and escalate conflicts," he said.

These plans have so far failed, due to continued efforts by the Jordanian security forces to firmly counteract the activities of the Iranian groups, he added.

"The deployment of more IRGC-affiliated armed militias in southern Syria and near the border with Jordan is part of those pressures and provocations," Ghazi said.

He pointed to previous statements from militia leaders about their willingness to arm thousands of fighters in Jordan, which "clearly reflect Iran's objectives of sowing problems and chaos in the Middle East."

The Iranian regime seeks to "disintegrate states and establish dominance over them politically, militarily and economically," he said.