The Middle East continues to navigate uncharted waters as two weeks have passed since the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran without the expected major Iranian retaliation. While there has been some escalation on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah, Iran’s ballistic missile launchers remain conspicuously silent.
In this volatile environment, Jordan has reportedly informed Israel and Arab countries that it will not allow any warring parties to use its airspace and is prepared to confront any Iranian projectile that breaches its skies, as it did on April 13th. The Jordanian government recently told Sky News Arabia that no country’s military would be allowed to utilize Jordanian airspace “under any circumstances.
Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi emphasized that the military remains committed to defending its airspace if it is violated and will prevent Jordan from being turned into a battlefield. These statements were prompted by regional reports claiming that Jordan has an agreement allowing Israel to use its airspace to repel Iranian aggression.
An outlet called Arabic Post claimed to cite a Jordanian official who said, “There is security, military, and intelligence coordination between Jordan and Israel regarding the expected Iranian response, which includes allowing the Israeli Air Force to participate in confronting potential Iranian attacks that may pass through the Kingdom’s skies.
Jordan is firmly denying these claims. The outlet had further suggested that Jordan was permitting Israel to conduct surveillance flights in its skies, also in cooperation with Cyprus. Despite Amman’s denial, the reality remains that Jordan’s King Abdullah II has long had a very close security and intelligence relationship with the United States.
The country hosts CIA hubs, and US special forces have long maintained a presence at the Hashemite kingdom’s military bases in the north, particularly related to the ten-year long proxy war in Syria. By extension, Jordan is seen as ‘friendly’ to Israel and is among America’s reliable ‘anti-Iran axis’ partners in the region. However, Jordan also has a very large Palestinian refugee population which it must be careful not to anger, and is thus never too openly sympathetic to its neighbor Israel.
