Jordan rejects Western ground troops in Syria

Jordan rejects the presence of a Western army in Syria, King Abdullah said, adding that the West doesn’t realise that it’s in a Third World War.

Speaking in a CBS News interview which was aired yesterday, the king said Western countries “seem to understand us better than we know each other. And as a result you can see the train on the track coming to the, to the wreck and we do advise that, if we keep going that way, it’s pretty obvious to some of us what’s going to happen. And you know, you can only express your views as much and as emotionally as you can.”

Both Abdullah and his father before him advised American presidents to stay out of conflicts in Iraq, advice that was never heeded.

“The ethnic makeup of the region is pretty glaringly obvious for us that live in the region, that advisers and think tanks in the West seem to know us better than we supposedly know ourselves.”

“I think the problem with the West is they see a border between Syria and Iraq. Daesh does not. And this has been a frustration,” he said. “So if you’re looking at it and want to play the game by your rules, knowing that the enemy doesn’t, we’re not going to win this.”

Jordan says it has flown more than 1,000 missions against Daesh in Syria in coordination with the US last year.

Western armies cannot be sent to Syria, he explained: “At the end of the day, you can’t have Western troops walking down the street of Syrian cities and villages. At the end of the day, you need the Syrians to be able to do that.”

Speaking of the ensuing refugee crisis which has hit the region as a result of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, Abdullah said: “Jordan has always been a place that opens it arms to refugees from many countries, unfortunately. But then it got to a point where, you know, we’re now at 20 per cent increase of our population. And the huge burden on our country we’re in dire straits.”

“Unemployment is skyrocketing. Our health sector is saturated. Our schools are really going through difficult times. It’s extremely, extremely difficult. And Jordanians are just have had it up to here. I mean we just can’t take it anymore.”

Jordan is now home to 656,400 Syrian refugees who have registered with UNHCR, the real number of refugees living in the kingdom is thought to be much higher.