(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
The bargain US forces brokered in Syria, to secure the safe passage of some four thousand ISIS fighters from Raqqa, is no longer a secret. Thousands of Daeshi fighters and their families left the city shortly before it fell in the hands of US-backed Democratic Syrian Forces (DSF). Contrary to the consistency of US denials, one military official in Qasad later uncovered the very details of the deal.
Meanwhile, the truth is that this is not the first deal ever brokered between a superpower and the terrorists in Syria.
Not long ago, the Russians cut a similar deal with ISIS and Hezbollah. The bargain was to relocate hundreds of the group's militants from towns near the border with Lebanon to Deir al Zour, near the Syria-Iraq border.
In a delusional attempt to explain the spike in terrorist activities in Sinai, Egyptian 'experts —as they call themselves— have come up with the 'brilliant theory. In short, they claimed that ISIS militants are somehow finding their way from Deir al Zour to Sinai through Jordan!
Countless Egyptian media and news outlets, instead of exploring the validity of the claim, began adopting it and promoting it. It got to the point that several, prominent Egyptian military and security 'experts were actually advocating this nonsense on live, national television!
Imagine Jordan, the country spearheading the war against ISIS, opening its borders up for thousands of militants to cross through all the way south, to Aqaba, to cross over to Sinai!
Clearly, Egyptian military and security officials do not take this gibberish seriously! Jordan, of all the countries bordering Iraq and Syria, was the only one capable of securing its borders. Every other borderline, North, East and West of Syria and Iraq was infiltrated beyond reconciliation.
Over the years, the Jordanian army has foil hundreds of infiltration attempts, not to mention arms and drug smuggling operations, inbound from both Syria and Iraq.
In the meantime, respective Jordanian institutions engaged first-hand the various powers involved in the Syria crisis in efforts to realise a long-lasting ceasefire in borderline areas. A few months ago, these efforts paid off.
More so, it actually drove terrorist groups and foreign militias as far away from the borderline as possible. It even led to the besiegement of the only ISIS pocket in the Syrian southwest.
Additionally, it also brought the Nusra Frontier to a halt as well and broke down their organisational abilities.
In the months past, allied powers exerted immense pressure on Jordan to allow entry to various militant groups affiliated with the 'moderate Syrian opposition. These pressures grew significantly after the Deir al Zour and the South-eastern concessions were made.
Nonetheless, Jordan refused, and strongly might I add, to allow thousands of those militants into the Kingdom. Not even temporarily. Jordan also rejected tying the Rukban camp, on the Syrian side of the border, to the humanitarian aid operations carried out on and through the Jordanian territories.
None of the above is undisclosed from public record. What more do they need, those so-called experts and analysts?
It makes no sense that Jordan would compromise the northern border, and with it the entire country, so that terrorists can to Sinai, through a highly strategic and vital access point; Aqaba, Jordan's only maritime access point! And to help terrorists reinforce their presence in Sinai, so close to Aqaba? Its madness, if anything!
Less than a year ago, terrorists launched several missiles towards Eilat. When their were intercepted, the debris fell in Aqaba, nearly causing a catastrophe!
Why on earth would Jordan want terrorists so close to Aqaba?!
More importantly, how can 'experts, let alone the media, give voice to such preposterous allegations?
Aren't we a little too old to be playing such an amateurish version of the blame game?
Every time I hear it, it sounds more like the Egyptian authorities trying to blame someone else for their failures in Sinai, making up accusations as they go!
This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
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