The Jordanian army began to reinforce the Syrian military outposts on the border with Jordan from the eastern side.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted unnamed Syrian military sources as saying that the recent moves in this context “are tantamount to announcing an escalation of the rules of engagement with smugglers from the Jordanian side, and an attempt by the Syrian regime to prove its cooperation in combating drug smuggling.”
The reinforcements came after air strikes targeted, two days ago, the house of a prominent drug dealer in As-Suwayda and a building in the countryside of Daraa.
And it considered that “the issue of drug smuggling is in the hands of the Syrian regime,” and considered it “a pressure card created by it, and it may dispense with it if it gets what it wants or compensates for the value that this trade brings to it.”
The newspaper downplayed the impact of the air strikes on the flow of drugs into Jordan, stressing the need to target the “roots of drug production and smuggling,” which “are still with (Hezbollah), the (Fourth Division) and others close to the ruling family.”
