Jordan Increases Number of Soldiers on Border, Reminds Israel Not to Try to Expel Palestinians from West Bank

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh. (Wikimedia Commons/Require

JAKARTA - Jordan announced that its army had increased the number of personnel along the border with Israel, warning that any attempt to force Palestinians to cross the Jordan River would be a violation of the peace agreement with the neighboring country.

Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said his country would use "every means it can" to prevent Israel from implementing any displacement policy to expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank.

"Any movement or creation of conditions that lead to this, Jordan will consider it a declaration of war and a significant violation of the peace agreement," explained PM Khasawneh, quoted by state media, referring to the 1994 peace agreement with Israel, as reported by Reuters, November 22.

"This will lead to the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and harm Jordan's national security," added PM Khasawneh.

Meanwhile, officials said the army was on high alert for any possibility.

It is known that the latest Israel-Gaza conflict that broke out last month has raised long-standing fears in Jordan, which is home to a large number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Meanwhile, the hard-line ultra-nationalist right-wing group currently in the Israeli government has long been known to support a Jordanian-is-Palestinian solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

Jordan, the second Arab country after Egypt to sign a peace deal, has strong security ties with Israel.

However, relations between the two have plummeted since the emergence of one of the most right-wing governments in Israel's history.

"The peace agreement will just be a piece of paper on a shelf covered in dust, if Israel does not honor its obligations and violates them," stressed PM Khasawneh.

Any threat to Jordan's national security would "expose all available options", he said, adding the recent troop deployment along the border with Israel was part of measures to protect the country's security.

PM Khasawneh added that Israel's actions in the West Bank could trigger wider violence, considering the increase in Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian civilians since Hamas' attack on southern Israel on October 7.

"Israel must avoid any escalation in the West Bank… This is a red line that Jordan will not accept," he stressed.