With its latest missile attacks on an American base in Jordan, Iran is hoping to sow discord in the Hashemite kingdom between those who continue to see an American military presence as useful protection and those who see the American base as a target for Iranian missiles that, if they go astray, can cause damage and loss of civilian life.. Iran is hoping its attacks will arouse enough alarm among the people of Jordan for them to then put pressure on the government in Amman to close the American base. More on Iran’s strategy in dealing with Jordan can be found here: “‘Exactly what Iran intended’: Some Jordanians buckle under missile pressure, demand US withdrawal,” by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2026:
The Islamic Republic is making headway in its ambition to “sow discord within Jordan and create governmental chaos in order to expand Iranian influence” in the country, Prof. Ronen Yitzhak told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, following the publication of an open letter signed by hundreds of Jordanian political and legal figures demanding the withdrawal of US forces.
The letter, a rare public challenge to the Jordanian government, was signed by both Palestinian and original Jordanian tribes, which is what makes it particularly “disturbing,” Yitzhak said.
“This is exactly what Iran intended when it launched missiles at Jordan, as well as at other Gulf states. Its goal was to put pressure on the Jordanian population to demand the removal of the American presence,” he said.
“But it is more than that. There is an Iranian intention to deepen the gap between the Jordanian government, which supports the United States, and the Jordanian people, which opposes American policy, as part of the Iranian ambition to sow discord within Jordan and cause governmental chaos in order to increase Iranian influence in Jordan – this has been Iran’s ambition for over 20 years.”
The letter claimed that US military presence “exposes Jordan to security, political, and economic risks that serve no national interest and increases the likelihood of our country being dragged into a regional conflict to which it is not a party.”….
But King Abdullah is determined to keep the 4,000 American troops, along with American planes and other weapons, in Jordan, as security against threats foreign and domestic. He is also keenly aware that if he were to close the American base, the Americans in Congress would likely call for an end to the large amounts of aid Washington now provides Jordan, which is now amounts to $1.8. billion dollars annually, making Jordan the third highest recipient of American aid after Israel and Ukraine. From his point of view, the Jordanians demanding the American base be shut down fail to comprehend the economic consequences of such a move.
Though Amman’s relationship with the US has been undoubtedly beneficial, the regional escalation has also had a deep impact on Jordan’s economy. The Central Bank of Jordan reported that in the first half of 2026, tourism revenue went down from expatriate Jordanians by 12%, US nationals by 25%, and European nationals by 28%. According to The New York Times, the tourism industry alone makes up 18% of Jordan’s revenues….
Tourism to Jordan has gone down not because of the intermittent attacks on the American base in the country, but because of the general level of instability and violence all over the Middle East, as Iran lashes out at seven different Arab states in the region, Iran’s Houthi allies threaten to shut down the Bab al-Mandeb strait to Red Sea traffic, and the U.S. and Iran are exchanging fire yet again. And though there are no American bases in Egypt, Iranian drone has hit two natural gas tankers in Damietta, Egypt, one of them American-owned. With such omnidirectional violence, it is no wonder tourism to Jordan has gone down, just as it has everywhere in the Middle East.
Sufyan al-Tell, a political activist who signed the letter, told the Times that Jordan’s capabilities were being “exploited…one way or another to defend Israel,” reflecting a growing number of Jordanians who have vocalized the belief that the country is making sacrifices for the benefit of a foreign power.
Jordan is not “making sacrifices” for Israel by hosting an American military base. Those 4,000 troops and their weapons are there to defend the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from enemy attack, including from Shi’a Iran and “Palestinians” inside Jordan opposed the rule of the indigenous Jordanians. The American base in Jordan also helps project American power throughout the region, in the same way that American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia all do. Iran, after all, would dearly like to bring down all of the Arab monarchies, including that in Jordan. King Abdullah understands this.
King Abdullah, a graduate of Frank Boyden’s Deerfield Academy (I happened to be present at his graduation in 1980 because a relative of mine was one of his classmates), is not going to yield to those who, consumed by their hatred of Israel, are in cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite -your-face mode. He knows the diplomatic and economic consequences for Jordan — none of them good — if it were to close down the American base.
Wellington says
Proving again that Iran is the single most disgusting nation in the world (yes, disgusting). No nation, not one, has tried to destabilize the economic, geopolitical, military, etc. make-up of the world more than Iran has since 1979. Hell, it even has attacked one way or another fellow Muslim nations, as exampled by this article.
Iran is run by monumental assholes. Iran is the fundament of the almost 200 nations that exist. Not even Russia, North Korea, China, Cuba, et al. are worse than Iran. Not one, though still terrible as they are. And yet I keep being told that the Persian people are a significant people, even a great people. No, they are not. Any people who would allow their nation to be the worst nation in the world for going on half a century have nothing great about them. Put another way, if the Persian nation had never existed, what would the human race be missing? I state here emphatically little to nothing at all.
gravenimage says
+1
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Not sure: think I loathe Turkey and Qatar even more
gravenimage says
Tough choices…
Billy says
Brilliant strategy!! Sunni Muslims(eg. Jordan, UAE, Qatar, etc.) are partnering with Shia Muslims(eg. Iran) to expand the Islamization of America and the West by the Muslims while having America spend its treasure and its people on Muslims lands with American bases in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, etc.). Meanwhile, Muslims are gaining political influence throughout America and its Institutions. Iranians are sacrificing their Money and their Lives for Jihad against America as taught in Islam’s Qur’an. Genocidal Allah in Qur’an 8:39 commands, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” In the Muslim mind, Muslims are winning the future for Islam!!!
ploome says
Trump is being played.
Trump wants a deal
(which according to sharia is invalid at it’s inception…see
https://web.archive.org/web/20010503221724/http://www.islaam.com/articles/treaty.htm
What is the duty today on the Muslim as regards these treaties?
The answer:
(1) The first duty is to firmly believe in their invalidity and that because they contain invalid conditions they were born dead the very day they were given birth to; because it is not lawful for the Muslim to conclude an agreement with the unbeliever for abandoning jihad and abrogating this religious duty, nor for giving up hostility towards the Jews and affirming love and amity for them; for this is leaving the millah. These treaties also contain provisions making it incumbent to screen out such Ayahs of the Quran and ahadith (statements) of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, that declare this enmity towards the Jews.
This undertaking constitutes a collusion with the unbelievers for concealing the Deen and knowledge and for suspending the Ayahs of the noble Quran and ahadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, that explain the essence of obligatory relationship with the Jews; and this in fact is driving the Muslims out of Islam and stripping the Ummah of its belief and history.
And since these treaties contain such conditions and stipulate them clearly, they are therefore invalid and it is not lawful for the Muslim to believe in them.
(2) The second duty of the Muslim is to believe that these treaties do not bind him and that it is not lawful for him to give effect to any of their contents except under compulsion and necessity to the extent compulsion is a valid ground for compliance.
This is so because they contain the above noted invalid conditions and because they have been concluded without the consent and consultation of the men of religion, learning and judgement and because they will spoil the Deen of his sons and progeny, besides spoiling his worldly interests.
(3) The third duty is to work towards overthrowing these treaties. Their position is like the position of every abomination that may be found in the land of Islam and that which it is a duty to abhor and reject according to the conditions and requirements of rejecting as far as practicable, and to see that there does to accrue to it a worse abomination and that an abomination is not met by another abomination.
(4) The fourth duty is to believe that the Jews, as long as they adhere to their false religion, waging war against Islam and its followers, they are members of a community on whom Allah ‘s wrath has fallen. It is a duty to fight and confront them as long as they remain on their course of action in fighting Islam, disbelieve in it and commit aggression upon the Muslims.
To detest them is the Deen to be followed for Allah’s sake by a Muslim.
(5) The duty to unite the Ummah towards attaining this objective of putting an end to the sway of the Jews in the world and to their tyranny upon the Muslims and their capture of the base of the Night Journey of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, and of al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
(6) To believe that the Jews could not have been able to establish their sway in the world to such an extent except after the elimination of Islam from the Arab states and their constitutions and legislation – except as Allah had His mercy – and the slogans of nationalism and secularism had taken the place of Islam and there had taken up this issue the secularists who fought the Jews under slogans other than Islam, and isolated Islam from this issue. Then when they were unsuccessful, and this is Allah’s way of dealing with His creation, and they announced their humiliating surrender and threw themselves under the feet of the Jews, they gave it out as the highest degree of wisdom and reason. Hence they failed in their war and Allah debased and disgraced them in this life before the hereafter, on account of their moving away from Islam and their discarding of the Book of Allah and the sunnah of His Messenger,peace and blessings of Allah be on him. And on that account to believe that there cannot be any victory in this issue and any dislodgement of the Jews from the midst of the Ummah and an ending of their sway in the world except by means of Islam in belief, in method and in jihad.
(7) To pray to Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala day and night that He unite the words of the followers of Islam, that He unite their ranks and that He return them to their Deen; and that He prepare for them the means of their victory over the enemy of Allah and theirs.)
Iran wants to win….and will go scorched earth
jihad never ends…it goes dormant when muslims have no more assets…when they are starving
their unimaginable, unearned wealth from oil, at this time. gives them enormous opportunity to infiltrate and influence
and add to that their Kitman, Muruna, Taqiyya and Tawriya, behaviors that overwhelm the western understanding.
Beans🫘 says
Trump is willingly being played. That’s so obvious. He’s desperate to get out, and he will let Iran get away with everything just to get out of this situation.
There is no chance. Repeat . No chance Iran plays honestly.
gravenimage says
You can’t make a deal with someone who wants to murder you. President Trump *should* know this.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I was watching Tousi TV 2 days ago. It seems that the reason this attack was called off was a leak from the White House signaling that an attack was imminent, and alerting the islamic republicans to it. The argument Mahyar Tousi made was that in such a situation, they had no choice but to call off the attack
However, within Iran, it looks like preparations are being made to distribute weapons to the populace. According to an interview a member of the Pahlavi team had w/ the NYT, Iranian dissidents are studying videos of January 8th & 9th, reviewing what worked and what didn’t, and also arming themselves. In fact, one of the warnings they left after January was that “Next time, we will be armed”. There is a great deal of effort in getting arms distributed all over
Also, after the hangings of 4 tweens in Isfahan late last week, Iranians are once again seething, and in that same Tousi video, they showed several Iranian individuals – both male & female, burning the qur’an. Some even dared show their faces, while one urinated on his burning qur’an 😂. (Not sure whether these qur’ans were in Arabic or Farsi, but whatever….)
Hopefully, this uprising in Iran happens independently of what goes on in the White House
The US can still win says
The US can do the same back to Iran.
Raid the Iranian islands in the southern part of the Gulf in coordination with the UAE Armed Forces. Then “gift” the islands to the UAE in perpetuity. No permanent US boots on the ground, but permanent UAE boots.
Then raid Kharg Island in the northern part of the Gulf in coordination with the Kuwaiti Armed Forces. And “gift” Kharg Island to Kuwait in perpetuity.
When Iran is freaking out about the loss of their islands in the Gulf, assist Azerbaijan to seize key aspects of the Iranian provinces of Ardabil and East Azerbaijan in north western Iran.
When Iran is focused on their north west, enable Iraq to seize the southern part of Khuzestan province near Basrah.
Give the greenlight to the Baluchistan Liberation Army to strike Iranian targets in the south east.
Don’t put any US boots on the ground, but offer all manner of US air and intelligence support to selected regional allies.
Any Iranian armoured vehicle, artillery piece or HQ will be targeted by US air.
But ground troops will be provided by the neighbouring regional countries who have been attacked by Iran, and by selected local Iranian anti-regime forces.
Concurrently, support Saudi and Yemini operations against the Houthis, and Lebanese and Israeli operations against Hezbollah.
Train and equip an anti-regime indigenous Iranian resistance force. Have them conduct guerrilla raids, local drone attacks, sabotage and intelligence collection throughout Iran. No Iranian security sites should be safe.
Tie the Iranians in knots.
Hit and run. Strike or raid, then withdraw.
Have the Iranians defending in one place, then strike them elsewhere across their vast country.
Give them dilemmas – do they defend in point A or point B or point C or point D?
And as the Iranians try to redeploy within Iran, strike any moving convoy from the air, or destroy any bridges and transport routes so they can’t redeploy or logistically sustain themselves. Attack logistic nodes so their vehicles have no fuel and their soldiers have no rations and they become functionally exhausted.
And don’t halt for another round of fruitless peace talks. The Iranians have shown they can never be trusted to abide by any peace agreement.
Sadly, this is now a war of attrition.
Sustain the military pressure on Iran with regional allies until there is unconditional surrender from the Iranians.
Then ban the hideous practice of Islam in Iran, just as the losing National Socialist Germans were required to de-Nazify and abandon the hideous ideology that had motivated their violence.
gravenimage says
The UAE is never going to defend against other Muslims–nor will Kuwait. We would just have to put our troops on the line to transfer these islands to Sunni from Shia. With all respect, this is not “winning”.
The US can still win says
Let’s ask Sunni UAE and Sunni Kuwait if they’d like to take territory off Shia Iran: the same Iran that has been attacking them.
gravenimage says
*Of course* the Sunnis would like the US to give them Shia territory–and defend it for them–doesn’t mean that this would much benefit us.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If you hand over Iranian territory to any of their neighbors – Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Emirates or anybody else, you’ll lose a valuable thing that both the US and Israel have: the goodwill of the Iranian people. Something that will be invaluable once this islamic regime falls
Better idea would be to seize Kharg island and hold it, and anything that goes out of there – the proceeds should be seized and put in escrow w/ the Pahlavi team, and held until the regime is overthrown. Once the islamic republic’s funds are hijacked, they’ll be forced to look for other income sources
The US can still win says
Fair enough.
But given the risk aversion the West has to casualties, any permanent seizure of territory by the US places US forces at greater of being a casualty. And US ground force casualties would be political poison in the lead up to the US Mid Terms. It would invalidate prior comments by Trump regarding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A compromise solution, that minimises the risk of politically damaging US casualties, yet still denies the geography and assets to the Iranians, may be to have temporary UAE and Kuwaiti occupation of captured territory under the agreement and condition that the UAE and Kuwait will hand the territory back to Iran once the current Iranian regime is overthrown.
The proceeds could still be seized and put in escrow with the Pahlavi team, and held until the Iranian regime is ultimately overthrown.
The UAE and Kuwait will know that failure to abide on an arrangement to eventually hand the territory back to Iran once the current regime is replaced would attract the ire of the US. UAE and Kuwait are likely to cooperate with the US and the replacement for the Iranian regime, because it is in their long-term strategic benefit to do so.
Beans🫘 says
US naval forces have pulled out of the Persian Gulf. Re supplying that kharg island under constant mass drone attacks will be very hard for slow ships.
Better to just keep the blockade on and kharg doesn’t work anyway. Anybody that wants to invade Iran is welcome to go with Mark Levin. He said he is going with his family.
somehistory says
“Jordan has warned that an Israeli takeover of one of Jerusalem’s most important Muslim sites is imminent and could trigger a religious conflict, according to a report.
The Jordanian government will hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the Arab and Islamic world on Wednesday, as they look to address repeated incursions by Jewish religious extremists into the al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock compound.
Speaking to The Guardian, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Sadafi said: “This is a constant threat, a dangerous threat that we’re trying to counter in every tool that we have possible. We warn that tampering with the status quo … could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world.”
Hardline Israeli government ministers, including police minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have frequently called for the site, known to Jews as Temple Mount, to be taken over by the Israeli state with the construction of a synagogue on its grounds.
On 23 July, Ben Gvir joined thousands of Jewish extremists as they stormed the site, escorted by police, praying, waving the Israeli flag and singing the national anthem. The move was described by Amman as “a desecration of the sanctity of the mosque, an escalation, a barbaric act, and unacceptable provocation”.
Jordan has held custodianship of the site for more than 100 years, and Israel committed to honouring that agreement in a 1994 peace treaty.
But the decades-old status quo, overseen by Jordan’s Hashemite royal family, is under serious threat. This year, dozens of Muslim mosque staff have their entry permits revoked, an Imam was been arrested by Israeli police during Friday prayer, and incursions by Jewish groups have escalated.
”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/israeli-seizure-of-jerusalem-s-holiest-muslim-site-is-imminent/ar-AA29oqb2?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6a72aa8dc51f4f6b94783c69ca9f8de3&ei=44
Gamzu says
About 30 football fields could fit on the Temple Mount, so there is ample room for a synagogue on Judaism’s holiest site, which Islam (in typical fashion) appropriated. But you are right about the treaty commitment, which should be honored, as long as Jordan honors the treaty’s other provisions.
Beans🫘 says
I doubt it. Israel usually fights and wins, and then surrenders to Muslims eventually whatever they won.
It’s common sense that mount should be available for all faiths. I thought Islam was about peace and openness? Only for Muslims? On Israeli land, only for Muslims? That does not sound so peaceful and open to me. What about you? It sounds almost like it’s racist.