INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Army and security chiefs from Jordan and Syria met on Sunday to curb a growing drug trade along their mutual border that has seen deadly
skirmishes, blamed mainly on pro-Iranian militias who hold sway in southern Syria.The meeting comes after Syria&s neighbors got a pledge
from Damascus during a meeting last May in Amman to cooperate with their efforts to rein in Syria&s flourishing drug trade in exchange for
helping end its pariah status after a brutal crackdown of peaceful protesters during the civil war, Reuters reported.The talks headed by
Jordanian army head Lieutenant General Yousef Hunaiti and Syrian Defence Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas in the presence of both countries&
intelligence chiefs also tackled the threat drugs posed to regional stability, a Jordanian foreign ministry statement said.The meeting
discussed cooperation in confronting the drug danger and its sources of production and smuggling and the parties that organize and execute
smuggling operations across the border,& the statement said.Syria is accused by Arab governments and the West of producing the
highly-addictive and lucrative amphetamine captagon and organizing its smuggling into the Gulf, with Jordan a main transit route.The kingdom
has been alarmed about lawlessness in the strategic southern region where it echoes Washington&s accusations that pro-Iranian militias
protected by units with the Syrian army run the multi-billion dollar smuggling networks.The United States , Britain and European Union have
blamed Syria&s government for the production and export of the drug, naming Maher al-Assad, the head of the army&s elite Fourth Division and
the president&s brother, as a key figure.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad&s government denies involvement in drug-making and smuggling or
complicity by Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces
Iran says the allegations are part of Western plots against the country.Jordan, impatient with what it says are broken promises to curb the
drug war, took matters into its own hands and in May made a rare strike inside Syrian territory where an Iran-linked drugs factory was
demolished, local and Western intelligence sources said.Jordan&s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi earlier this month said in Damascus his
country would not hesitate to act against any threat to its national security and urged Damascus to act more forcefully, Reuters reported.In
the last few weeks, Jordan&s army downed two Iranian operated drones coming from Syria with one the army said carried weapons, a worrying
development for Amman which had in the past accused Damascus of sending militants to wage terror attacks.Jordan requested more United States
military aid to bolster security on the border, where Washington has since the more than decade-long conflict began given around $1 billion
to establish border posts, officials say.Jordan has a roughly 375 km long border with Syria.The post Syrian and Jordanian army and
intelligence chiefs meet over drug war along border first appeared on Ariana News.
