Why Jordan helped repel the Iranian missile attack on Israel

If anyone thought Jordan’s part in intercepting drones Iran launched at Israel on the weekend marked a turning point in the Hashemite Kingdom’s relations with the Jewish state, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi immediately tried to dispel that notion, insisting in media interviews that Israel was still the real problem.

Leading figures in Jordan have for months been leveling harsh criticism on Israel and Amman called off an energy and water deal in response to the war in Gaza, amid pressure from a population that has largely been unsupportive of relations between the countries since they signed an agreement in 1994.

But the Iranian assault, with projectiles flying over Jordanian territory, marked a point where Amman was working in its own interest, which overlapped with Jerusalem’s, rather than Jordan jumping to Israel’s rescue, experts said.

Iran has long worked to gain a foothold in Jordan and undermine the stability of its monarchy. Israel’s 300 km-border with Jordan is its longest frontier, such that a stronger Iranian or Iran-backed presence would pose a serious threat to the Jewish state.

Yet Israel, Eyal Pinko, senior research fellow at Bar-Ilan Universitys BESA Center of Strategic Studies said, is “only one player on the chessboard…in the war within Islam, between the Shi’ite countries led by Iran and the Sunni countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Jordan and Morocco.”

Former Deputy Ambassador to Egypt Ruth Wasserman Lande, a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, told Jewish Insider that in recent years Iran “found graves of all kinds of Shi’ite sheikhs on the Israel-Jordan border, told the Jordanians they must come and take care of the graves, and suddenly there was an Iranian presence in Jordan.”

Those graves began a “slow encroachment” that characterizes Iran’s behavior around the region, Wasserman Lande said. Jordan remained silent for years, even when Iran-supported Hamas tried to compete with the Kingdom over primacy at holy sites in Jerusalem, and as Iran and its proxy Hezbollah smuggled weapons and drugs through Jordan.

Iran has been trying to shuffle the cards inside Jordan by inciting Palestinians in Jordan via social media, Pinko noted in a briefing to the Jerusalem Press Club this week.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that “this is about Jordan itself before it’s about Israel. The sovereignty of Jordan is at stake…Jordan is aware their sovereignty is really precious. This means any kind of infringement on their sovereignty, big or small, will be foughtThis happens to align with Israeli interests.”



Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that Iran would like to replace [Jordans monarchy] with any of their proxies or create a proxy inside Jordan.”

A week before the missile and drone attack on Israel, Iranian media reported that Hezbollah is ready to arm 12,000 Islamist resistance fighters in Jordan to overthrow the monarchy.

“Jordan only recently started saying ‘enough’ in public,” Wasserman Lande said. “Apparently, they’ve reached a red line and made clear statements that they want this to stop.”

As such, “this is about Jordan itself before it’s about Israel,” Abdul-Hussein said. “The sovereignty of Jordan is at stake…Jordan is aware their sovereignty is really precious. This means any kind of infringement on their sovereignty, big or small, will be foughtThis happens to align with Israeli interests.”

As such, the palaces readout of the kings call with President Joe Biden on Sunday said that His Majesty affirmed that Jordan will not allow for a regional war to unfold on its land. The statement made no reference to Iran or intercepting the projectiles it launched, but said the call “covered the latest developments in the region and efforts to de-escalate and reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Safadi told CNN: “Whatever objects that go into our skies, violate our airspace, that we believe pose a danger to Jordan, we will do whatever within our means to end that threat and that’s what we did… Our priority is to protect Jordan and Jordanian citizens.

Rather than pin the issue on Iran, Safadi said that the cause of all this tensionis the Israeli aggression of Gaza and the continued absence of a political horizon.

Abdul-Hussein called Safadis remarks horrible and said they didnt even add up.

He said the Iranian attack happened because theres no political horizon in Palestine — thats really dumb, because now hes putting Jordan in the way of a political horizon in Palestine, Abdul-Hussein said. If you think the absence of a political horizon justifies the Iranian attack, then why stand against it?

These kinds of statements are divorced from actual policies, Abdul-Hussein added.

Safadi can’t admit to cooperation with Israel, because of “anger on the street,” where most of the Jordanian population identifies as Palestinian, and “terrible incitement in education in Jordan,” Wasserman Lande said.

Even though the king talks about east Jerusalem and Gaza in the media, Pinko said, he is afraid of what is happening inside his country. But you only see that below the [surface].

Former Deputy Ambassador to Egypt Ruth Wasserman Lande, a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, saw Jordan’s part in thwarting the Iranian attack as “a turning point in [Israel and Jordan’s] cooperation against Iran, because the [Jordanian] government is at a boiling point when it comes to its own survival,” which she said “depends on other countries, first and foremost Israel and the U.S.” 



Jordan also faced harsh criticism beyond its own borders, as well, with one Al Jazeera executive writing: There are Arab citizens who pull the trigger to protect Israel and watch when the Palestinians are bombed. A new and shocking scene. One meme that made the rounds on X, formerly Twitter, showed King Abdullah II in an IDF generals uniform.

An Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Jerusalem was very encouraged by Amman being part of the coalition against Iran, and an effective one at that.

However, the official said, Israel has kept quiet about it because of the intense pressures the monarchy is facing.

Wasserman Lande saw Jordan’s part in thwarting the Iranian attack as “a turning point in [Israel and Jordan’s] cooperation against Iran, because the [Jordanian] government is at a boiling point when it comes to its own survival,” which she said “depends on other countries, first and foremost Israel and the U.S.”

Pinko said that cooperation between Israel and Jordan in the military and intelligence spheres is “very strong,” but posited that Washington pressured King Abdullah to help Israel in this case, noting that “Jordan pretty much depends on the U.S. and most of the Jordanian military equipment and platforms are Americans.”