MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has offered to send troops to Jordan to help combat militants, after agreeing to deepen military cooperation with the Middle Eastern nation to fight extremism.
Both countries have been battling Daesh’s influence, with Jordan playing a key role in an international coalition, and the Philippines on alert after a five-month occupation of a city by militant rebels — its worst conflict since World War Two.
“If there is anything that we can do, if you are short in your army, let me know,” Duterte said on Thursday at a business forum in Amman in a comment to King Abdullah, who earlier lamented the “evil” both states were facing.
“You need one battalion... I will send them to you. I will commit my government in the right side of history.”
King Abdullah is an important Middle East ally of Western powers, with Jordan playing a prominent role in the US-led coalition against Daesh, providing military, logistical and intelligence support.
Earlier this year, Jordan announced it will provide the Philippines with two Cobra attack helicopters to help fight insurgents.
Duterte is on a six-day visit to Jordan and Israel, and his activities have been broadcast in the Philippines. He has signed agreements with Israeli companies to buy small arms, armored vehicles, and surveillance and reconnaissance equipment.
Philippines’ Duterte offers troops to Jordan to fight militants
Philippines’ Duterte offers troops to Jordan to fight militants
- Both countries have been battling Daesh’s influence, with Jordan playing a key role in an international coalition
- ‘You need one battalion... I will send them to you. I will commit my government in the right side of history’
Israeli president tells Bild: War with Iran needs ‘end result’, not exact timetable
- Herzog said the US and Israeli attacks on Iran were changing the whole configuration of the Middle East
- He defended strikes on Iranian oil sites as a way of taking away money from Tehran’s “war machine“
JERUSALEM: Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday did not offer a timetable on when the war with Iran could end, telling Germany’s Bild newspaper: “We need to take a deep breath and get to the end result.”
Herzog said the US and Israeli attacks on Iran were changing the whole configuration of the Middle East. He defended strikes on Iranian oil sites as a way of taking away money from Tehran’s “war machine.”
The interview was published as the US and Israel pounded Iran with what the Pentagon and Iranians on the ground said were the most intense airstrikes of the war, despite global markets betting that President Donald Trump will seek to end the conflict soon.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, had earlier said his country was not planning for an endless war and was consulting with Washington about when to stop it.
“The Iranians are the ones spreading chaos and terror throughout the region and the world. So I think if we measure everything by a speedometer, we won’t get anywhere. We need to take a deep breath and get to the end result,” Herzog told Bild.
Eliminating the Iranian threat would “enable the entire system in the region to suddenly breathe again and develop further. That’s fantastic,” he added.
