Jordan Gearing Up for War, Israel Aide Says

A senior Israeli military officer said Friday that Jordan’s King Hussein is preparing his army and his people “for a possible war in the very near future.”

The officer, who asked not to be identified by name, said the “air smells of war,” and Israel is watching developments “very carefully.”

Military intelligence indicates that the Jordanian army, 80,000 strong, is “in a high state of alert and is behaving in an unusual fashion,” the officer said, adding, “I don’t want to go into detail and tell them exactly what we can see and not see from here.”

The Jordanians, he said, are believed to be whipping up public fervor on behalf of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, encouraging demonstrations and news media support for Iraq in the wake of its Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait. Offices are being opened to recruit Jordanian volunteers for the Iraqi armed forces, the officer said.

“It’s a state of mind,” he went on. “There might be a few reasons for it. Maybe they know something we don’t know. Maybe the Iraqis are planning, or they are planning together with the Iraqis. I don’t have a clear answer.”

It would make little sense, he said, for the king to keep his people in such a high state of tension unless he had something specific in mind.

Still, he said, “I don’t believe the king is afraid the U.S. is going to attack him, and I don’t think he’s afraid that we are going to attack him. That’s why I’m puzzled.”

The Israeli officer said that Iraq does not need Jordanian volunteers and that the recruiting effort appears to be “something symbolic, to show everybody that Arabs are supporting the Iraqi line . . . that they are willing to die” for the Iraqi cause.

Jordan has close economic ties to Iraq and is heavily dependent on imports of Iraqi oil.

Israeli sources suggest that King Hussein, who for years has had a moderate and pro-Western image, is falling increasingly under Iraq’s direction, possibly against his will, or at least against his better judgment.

The officer emphasized that Israel wants to see the monarch remain in power.

“We have an interest in keeping stability in Jordan,” he said. “We’re not going to make the decision in the streets of Amman (the Jordanian capital). Others will decide what will be, whether Jordan is going to continue walking in the Iraqi line. I believe stability in Jordan serves what the region needs now--and there is growing instability in Jordan.”