logo
Jordanian anti-narcotics authorities thwart smuggling attempt on border with Syria

Jordanian anti-narcotics authorities thwart smuggling attempt on border with Syria

Arab News2 days ago
LONDON: The Jordanian Armed Forces thwarted a drug smuggling attempt on their northeastern border with Syria on Tuesday morning as they intensified efforts to protect national security.
The Eastern Command, which includes units from Ar-Ramtha and Mafraq near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, thwarted an infiltration and smuggling attempt involving a large quantity of narcotics, in coordination with the Anti-Narcotics Department.
Jordanian troops forced the smugglers to retreat into Syrian territory after they deployed rapid response patrols and applied rules of engagement, according to the Petra news agency. A search of the area resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of narcotics by authorities.
Last week, Jordanian anti-narcotics authorities prevented an attempt to smuggle narcotics using a drone across the country's western border.
In January, Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic reached an agreement to establish a joint security committee aimed at securing their border, combating arms and drug smuggling, and preventing the resurgence of the Daesh terror group.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Syria says local leaders to take control of violence-hit Sweida
Syria says local leaders to take control of violence-hit Sweida

Al Arabiya

time23 minutes ago

  • Al Arabiya

Syria says local leaders to take control of violence-hit Sweida

The Syrian government announced Thursday that local leaders would assume control over security in the city of Sweida in an attempt to end violence that has claimed hundreds of lives and prompted Israel's military intervention in support of the Druze minority. Syrian forces had deployed to Sweida with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, following days of deadly clashes between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes that a war monitor said left more than 350 people dead. But witnesses said government forces had joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians. Israel responded by carrying out strikes on Syrian forces, including its army headquarters in Damascus, and said it would intensify its attacks if they did not withdraw from the south. Syria said Wednesday its army was withdrawing from Sweida and the United States -- a close ally of Israel that has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria -- said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging 'all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made.' Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised address Thursday that 'responsibility' for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions 'based on the supreme national interest.' 'We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,' he said. 'Unknown fate' Before the government intervention, Druze areas were mainly controlled by fighters from the minority. Addressing the Druze, Sharaa said the community was 'a fundamental part of the fabric of this nation... protecting your rights and freedom is one of our priorities.' Syria's extremist authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, have had strained relations with Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, and have been accused of not doing enough to protect them. March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their coastal heartland, with government affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings. Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead. Sharaa said 'outlaw groups', whose leaders 'rejected dialogue for many months' had committed 'crimes against civilians' in recent days. He said the deployment of defense and interior ministry forces had 'succeeded in returning stability' despite the intervention of Israel, which has bombed the country's south and the capital Damascus. Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the Syrian minority, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on Wednesday about the Israeli bombings, adding 'we want it to stop.' Rubio later announced on X that all sides had 'agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end.' 'This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do,' he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement. Sharaa hailed US, Arab and Turkish mediation efforts for preventing the conflict from spiraling. 'The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities,' he said, adding it would have sparked 'large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate.' He did not specify which Arab countries had mediated. Turkey is a key backer of Syria's new authorities, while Arab states including Qatar and Saudi Arabia have also shown support for the new government.

US to destroy Pakistan and Afghanistan bound food aid in UAE after Trump-era freeze
US to destroy Pakistan and Afghanistan bound food aid in UAE after Trump-era freeze

Arab News

timean hour ago

  • Arab News

US to destroy Pakistan and Afghanistan bound food aid in UAE after Trump-era freeze

With 1,100 metric tons of emergency food rations nearing expiry in a US government warehouse in Dubai after President Donald Trump's aid freeze, it took a warning of 'wasted tax dollars' for a top US official to eventually agree to a deal for the supplies to be used, sources told Reuters. The deal saved 622 metric tons of the energy-dense biscuits in June, but 496 metric tons, worth $793,000 before they expired this month, will be destroyed, according to two internal US Agency for International Development memos reviewed by Reuters, dated May 5 and May 19, and four sources familiar with the matter. The wasted biscuits will be turned into landfill or incinerated in the United Arab Emirates, two sources said. That will cost the US government an additional $100,000, according to the May 5 memo verified by three sources familiar with the matter. The delays and waste are further examples of how the freeze and then cutbacks, which led to the firing of thousands of USAID employees and contractors, have thrown global humanitarian operations into chaos. A spokesperson for the State Department, which is now responsible for US foreign aid, confirmed in an email to Reuters that the biscuits would have to be destroyed. But they said the stocks were 'purchased as a contingency beyond projections' under the administration of former President Joe Biden, resulting in their expiration. Trump has said the US pays disproportionately for foreign aid, and he wants other countries to shoulder more of the burden. His administration announced plans to shut down USAID in January, leaving more than 60,000 metric tons of food aid stuck in stores around the world, Reuters reported in May. The food aid stuck in Dubai was fortified wheat biscuits, which are calorie-rich and typically deployed in crisis conditions where people lack cooking facilities, 'providing immediate nutrition for a child or adult,' according to the UN World Food Programme. The WFP says 319 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine, primarily in Gaza and Sudan. FOOD SECURITY After Jeremy Lewin and Kenneth Jackson, operatives of the budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, were appointed acting deputy USAID administrators and began terminating food security programs, USAID staff were barred from communicating with aid organizations that were asking to take the biscuits, two sources said. A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was 'entirely false' that USAID staff were barred from communicating with aid groups, and that 'there was no direction given ... not to engage.' Reuters, however, reported that a January 25 email sent by Jackson emphasizing a 'complete halt' to all foreign assistance banned USAID staff from any communications outside of the agency unless approved by their front office. 'Failure to abide by this result in disciplinary action,' said the memo reviewed by Reuters. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on May 21 that no food aid would be wasted, as USAID staff were waiting for Lewin to sign off on a deal to transfer the 622 metric tons of biscuits to the WFP for distribution before they began expiring in September. That agreement was approved in June after weeks of waiting, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the May 19 memo verified by two of the sources. Both sources told Reuters that Lewin, who now runs the State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance, did not respond to the request for weeks. The State Department official said the memo had to go through revisions and edits before Lewin could sign it on June 2. Eventually, USAID staff sent a memo to Lewin warning him that the biscuits had a limited shelf-life and that the agency would have to pay an estimated $125,000 to have them destroyed, resulting in 'wasted tax dollars,' unless an agreement was struck with WFP to take them, both sources said. Lewin finally signed it, clearing the way for USAID staff to save the 622 metric tons of biscuits, valued at just under $1 million, now destined for Syria, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, according to the memo. Lewin did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department official said Lewin cleared the transfer in a 'timely manner,' and that consideration had to be given to finding shipping options that were not several times more expensive than the value of the biscuits. Both sources said it took until early July to begin sending the stocks because generally it requires weeks of work to rearrange shipments after supply chains are disrupted. A WFP official said it had signed an agreement to receive the biscuits. The supplies slated for destruction could have fed around 27,000 people for a month, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from WFP. Those stocks were originally intended for USAID partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera, the director of nutrition at Action Against Hunger UK, said: 'We knew the suspension of USAID funding would have immediate consequences, and the destruction of emergency food, at a time when acute hunger is at its highest on record, underscores the unintended consequences of such funding cuts.' The United States is the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38 percent of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data. The Trump administration notified Congress in March that USAID would fire almost all of its staff in two rounds on July 1 and September 2, as it prepared to shut down. In a statement on July 1 marking the transfer of USAID to the State Department, Rubio said the US was abandoning what he called a charity-based model and would focus on empowering countries to grow sustainably. 'We will favor those nations that have demonstrated both the ability and willingness to help themselves and will target our resources to areas where they can have a multiplier effect and catalyze durable private sector, including American companies, and global investment,' he wrote.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store