Jordan's involvement in the Syrian war

After the failure of Geneva II conference, diplomatic sources informed Rai al-Youm that the United States was working on a plan for military intervention in Syria with its base at Jordan, using Jordanian-Syrian borders for transferring sophisticated military weapons and equipments to the rebels.  The U.S. and E.U. are keen that the weapons must be used only by the FSA, being unrealistically optimistic that it's next to impossible  to prevent much of it from falling into the hands of many Al-Qaeda groups spread across Syria.

Rai al-Youm is a daily based in London and run by the well-known Middle-East analyst, Abdel Bari Atwan.  It reported the information provided by several diplomatic sources on recent comments of the U.S. ambassador to Syria and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, that the U.S. had a "Plan B" in case the Geneva II talks failed .... and the talks have failed.

On February 14, 2014, when King Abdullah of Jordan met President Obama in California, the U.S. President announced a loan of $1 billion for Jordan.   Abdullah's rhetoric against the Syrian Government has been consistently distasteful for the past one year with statements like "Syria past the point of allowing Assad to rule" and "If I was Assad I would step down."  One wouldn't need to be too discerning to guess that if the U.S. needed a new base for the Syrian war, Abdullah would be their handpicked man for making the necessary arrangements through Jordan.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is reported to have agreed to supply the rebels with mobile anti- aircraft missiles which it is trying to acquire from Pakistan.  Hopefully this report is wrong, the practical aspect of which is destructive as well as ethically outrageous.

What is definite is that like Saudi Arabia, Jordan too is awfully wary that none of the "jihadists" presently in Syria should enter Jordan to avoid all risks of Jordan turning into another Syria or Egypt.  Accordingly 'Plan B' assures Jordan of that.

American and European intelligence experts have been meeting in Jordan for lengthy discussions.  Though "Plan B" sounds difficult (almost far-fetched) and dangerous, it's supposed to be a serious one consisting of two phases:-

(1)  U.S. and British forces will enter Syria to confront al-Qaeda namely al-Nusra and ISIL with the purpose of disarming them and preventing them from reaching the borders with Israel.  Only FSA will be allowed to remain in southern Syria.

(2)  U.S. and the Brits will monitor the arming of FSA and helping them develop effective battlefront strategies to attack the bases of the Syrian Army while taking care the weapons aren't grabbed by al-Qaeda.

Apparently the plan intends to turn southern Syria entirely into an opposition zone for launching military offensives against the Syrian Government while foolishly underestimating the belligerence and fury of al-Nusra and ISIL in such circumstances, when the bulk of their hostility would likely be directed at the FSA and their sponsors rather than the Syrian Government.  To complicate matters further, internal intrigues being widespread among the foreign terrorist fighters, they're constantly changing sides, reshuffling and regrouping in different areas of Syria.

The Syrian Army learned early February 2014 of suspicious movements along the Jordanian border.  An army spokesman told Al-Akhbar:  "There are serious preparations along the Jordanian border and activities have been closely watched that indicate a large number of fighters are preparing for a major offensive .... opposition fighters are amassing in Daraa and if they attack it will be from there .. the army is ready for any surprise attack."

This tallies perfectly with the report of "Plan B" through Rai al-Youm.  It  shouldn't be discarded as spurious by the deceptive statement of Jordan's Interior Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat a couple d days ago in which he mentioned  "The Jordanian Armed Forces will never allow insurgents into Jordanian territory or allow them to transit through Jordan to any destination."  However, Syrian rebels will be confined to southern Syria for receiving essential deliveries from Jordan and launching attacks inside Syria.  Only U.S. and British military will use the Jordanian-Sryian border.

Whether or not the crazy "Plan B" is seriously on the table, it practically amounts to building castles in the air.  It  overlooks the widespread presence of al-Qaeda in Syria, the impossibility of keeping advanced military hardware out of their reach and the inability of FSA as well as U.S. and British troops to handle them.  If U.S and British forces enter Syria in an effort to eliminate al-Qaeda, that itself would be a long and bloody struggle and phase two might never materialize; let alone such a plan leading to a "transitional" government with the SNC smoothly assuming power as day-dreamed by the sponsors of this proxy war. The U.S. Army and its coalition tried to purge Iraq of al-Qaeda for almost a decade and failed despite the fact that back then al-Qaeda was comparatively an impoverished rag-tag militia, much weaker militarily and lesser in number.