DUBAI: Jordan and Syria have agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border, combat arms and drug smuggling and work to prevent the resurgence of Daesh, Jordan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Western anti-narcotics officials say the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon is being mass-produced in Syria and that Jordan is a transit route to the Gulf states.
Jordan’s army has conducted several pre-emptive airstrikes in Syria since 2023 which Jordanian officials say targeted militias accused of links to the drug trade and the militias’ facilities.
“We discussed securing the borders, especially the threat of arms and drugs smuggling and the resurgence of Islamic State. Our security is one, we will coordinate together to combat these mutual challenges,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safari told a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani.
Shibani, who was in Amman after visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates following the fall of President Bashar Assad, told Safadi that drug smuggling would not pose a threat to Jordan under Syria’s new rule.
“The new situation in Syria ended the threats posed to Jordan’s security,” he said.
Referring to the addictive amphetamine-type stimulant known as captagon, he said: “When it comes to captagon and drug smuggling, we promise it is over and won’t return. We are ready to cooperate on this extensively.”
Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh
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Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh
- Anti-narcotics officials say captagon is being mass-produced in Syria
- Add that Jordan is transit route to Gulf states
Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
- Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism.
Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed.
The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television.
A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”
Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by Daesh during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria.
The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”
US President Donald Trump called the incident “a Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”
