{"id":95648,"date":"2026-05-03T13:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/95648\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:41:09","slug":"why-jordans-syria-airstrikes-signal-a-new-redline-in-sweida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/95648\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jordan\u2019s Syria airstrikes signal a new redline in Sweida"},"content":{"rendered":"

For at least the third time in a year, the Kingdom of Jordan<\/a> has carried out airstrikes in Syria, targeting drug smugglers near Sweida<\/a>. This is an important development because Jordan is very cautious in its use of power and the kingdom is a close friend of the West, an ally of the Gulf states, and it has peace with Israel.<\/p>\n

As such, its decision to carry out strikes is more than a military incident; it is a message. Jordan has a redline. It doesn\u2019t want the smuggling to continue.<\/p>\n

This is not just a message to the drug smugglers; it is also a message to the Druze<\/a> authorities in Sweida, and it could be seen as a message to Israel, which has backed the Druze in Sweida. Damascus and Amman don\u2019t want the drug smuggling<\/a> to continue.<\/p>\n

Jordan and Syrian media generally did not cover the strikes widely, which indicates that both countries are not interested in drawing too much attention to what is happening. At this point, the messaging of the airstrikes is to show that Amman will act to protect its border.<\/p>\n

However, Syrian state TV did report on the airstrikes. The strikes targeted \u201cweapons and drug storage sites in the southern Druze-majority governorate of Sweida, where large areas remain outside the control of Damascus,\u201d according to the North Press agency in eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\"GraduatesGraduates march during the graduation ceremony for the first group of National Military Service graduates on April 29, 2026 in Az Zarqa’, Jordan. (credit: Salah Malkawi\/Getty Images)Jordan has been dealing with threats from drug smugglers<\/p>\n

Jordan Times quoted the Jordanian military as saying that the Jordanian Armed Forces had carried out a pre-dawn operation on Sunday, targeting arms and drug trafficking sites along the kingdom\u2019s northern border.<\/p>\n

JAF said that the strikes in the \u201cJordanian Deterrence Operation\u201d were based on intelligence and targeted \u201cfactories, facilities, and warehouses used by trafficking groups as launch points for smuggling operations into Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Press said that Syrian state media claimed the JAF had \u201clikely targeted a headquarters containing weapons and drugs controlled by rebel groups.\u201d The strikes took place in Shahba, a village near the city of Sweida.<\/p>\n

Sweida is currently controlled by the Druze, who are the majority in the area. They have created a kind of autonomous area, and there have been claims among some that the Druze want an independent small state. Jordan and Syria would oppose this move. However, Israel has said over the past year that it would step in to defend the Druze.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Israel carried out airstrikes on Damascus seeking to deter attacks on the Druze area. Since then, it has basically been its own self-governing area.<\/p>\n

Sweida is one of several areas in southern Syria that border northern Jordan. Jordan is also bordered by the Dara\u2019a region.<\/p>\n

Daraa was one of the centers of the Syrian rebellion against Assad\u2019s regime in 2011 to 2012. Jordan supported the moderate rebels in Daraa. They held an area in Dara\u2019a from 2012 to 2018, when the Syrian regime defeated them.<\/p>\n

Many hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fled to Jordan after 2012. Many Jordanians in northern Jordan have family or tribal ties to people in southern Syria.<\/p>\n

In fact, back in 1920, there was a meeting in Umm Qias in northern Jordan that was a key part of the formation of the kingdom. Between March and July 1920, there was a conflict in Syria between France and Arab leader King Faisal, the brother of the King of Jordan.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting, therefore, that as far back as 1920, there was a sense that Jordan and Syria are entwined.<\/p>\n

Although the French took over Syria for a time, and Jordan became closely linked to England, along with British Mandate Palestine, the challenges that Jordan sees in Syria in 2026 have roots harking back some 100 years.<\/p>\n

The Druze had an autonomous state in Jabal Druze in the 1920s and \u201930s, larger than the area they control in Sweida today.<\/p>\n

Today, Druze aspirations appear similar. For Damascus, the concept of a breakaway state is unwelcome. But Syria is concerned about Israel\u2019s growing intervention in the south. Some Israeli politicians have threatened to target Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.<\/p>\n

Sharaa enjoys good relations around the world, and he doesn\u2019t want to risk Syria\u2019s future for what is happening in Sweida. Israel has demanded that southern Syria be demilitarized. This essentially empowers the Druze in Sweida.<\/p>\n

From Jordan\u2019s point of view, this is potentially destabilizing because the kingdom has been dealing with threats from drug smugglers who operate in southern Syria. The drug smuggling gangs have been clashing with Jordan over the last decade. Many of the smugglers were supported by the Assad regime and Iranian-backed militias. They exploited the Syrian civil war to spread chaos across the region and move drugs all over the region, particularly Captagon.<\/p>\n

The new Syrian government has cracked down on this. However, Sweida is accused of not cracking down on the smuggling and of even allowing it. Jordan has indicated by airstrikes in 2025 and now in May 2026 that it will not accept this.<\/p>\n

North Press noted that the JAF said it had conducted \u201ca Jordanian deterrent operation targeting several locations used by arms and drug traffickers along the Kingdom\u2019s northern border.\u201d<\/p>\n

It went on to say it would \u201ccontinue to deal proactively, decisively, and deterrently with any threat to the security and sovereignty of the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reports indicate that these strikes were larger than the two rounds of strikes last year. They hit five locations, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, based on local testimony.<\/p>\n

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that one strike had hit near a security site, apparently belonging to the Sweida national guard.<\/p>\n

A second report by North Press reported that \u201csources said the Jordanian warplanes on Saturday targeted areas in the towns of Arman, Tel al-Loz, Malah, al-Hawiya, Busan and the city of Shahba, hitting houses, farms, and other sites. A young man from the town of Busan was wounded after a strike hit a house during the bombardment.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Press added that \u201cthe synthetic drug spread across the region over recent years, prompting neighboring countries to intensify seizures and repeatedly call on Lebanon and Syria to curb trafficking networks. Jordan has previously carried out cross-border strikes in southern Syria targeting drug-smuggling networks operating along its frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n

As recently as April 13, the Jordanians and the Syrian government held high-level meetings. Jordan and Syria want to work closely together. Syria likely prefers Jordan to use airstrikes because then Israel is less likely to intervene.<\/p>\n

If Syria had carried out the strikes, then Jerusalem would have threatened Damascus. However, Jordan has the clout and the ties to the West and the Gulf to carry out its own policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For at least the third time in a year, the Kingdom of Jordan has carried out airstrikes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[713,27312,654,20943,673,95,10292],"class_list":{"0":"post-95648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-airstrike","9":"tag-drug-trafficking","10":"tag-jordan","11":"tag-smuggling","12":"tag-sweida","13":"tag-syria","14":"tag-syrian-druze"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116510935198397455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}