As Iraq’s Window on the World, Jordan Nears the Breaking Point : Sanctions: The nation is squeezed between economic and political loyalties to Baghdad and the U.S. determination to hurt Saddam Hussein.

This barren outpost in the desert has become a new frontier in a war that never ended. Every day, hundreds of trucks lurch through its gates, their trailers stuffed with cargo bound for distant markets in Syria, Saudi Arabia and--in the face of a two-year-old international trade embargo--Iraq.

Through the bustling import-export zone here, cargoes of cigarettes, canned goods, produce and medicine--humanitarian items allowed under U.N. sanctions against Iraq--are scrutinized, catalogued, registered and finally dispatched toward Baghdad, a painstaking process that now can take up to six days under the desert sun.

“What do they want from these sanctions? Do they want us to die?” fumed an Iraqi cigarette merchant who was one of an unruly crowd of drivers, salesmen, middlemen and customs officials smoking, shouting, drinking tea and lounging amid the constant cacophony.

A businessman who has half a million pairs of shoes waiting in a warehouse for transport to Iraq confided: “We are walking a very thin line. We have obligations to the international community, so we follow the sanctions. But our hearts and minds are with Iraq.”

U.S. officials have estimated that 30% of the goods crossing from Jordan into Iraq in recent months have violated U.N. sanctions, and Jordan, more than a year after the war, has again found itself squeezed between its economic and political loyalties to Iraq and the U.S. determination to undermine the regime in Baghdad.

“Let us be clear: Jordan as a country is suffering a lot because of the sanctions, and now they want us also to suffer further losses. They want us to commit suicide,” Finance Minister Basel Jerdaneh complained.

Jordan believes the new U.S. criticism of Jordanian sanctions violations are really about the Bush Administration’s determination to drive out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before the November elections--or at least to make it appear to the world that Hussein’s demise is at hand.

In the months since the end of the Persian Gulf War, Jordan has increasingly become a window on the world for an isolated Iraq. Well-to-do Iraqi families, weary of desolate Baghdad, visit Amman to shop and to dine in its chic restaurants. Iraqi officials, shunned by the Jordanian regime, slip in and out of Amman. A cadre of influential Jordanians recently shared an elegant dinner at a downtown hotel with Abdul Amir Anbari, Iraq’s U.N. ambassador.

Business centers are full of well-heeled Iraqi businessmen negotiating deals--most legal, some not, diplomats here report--to funnel goods from around the world into Iraq. Ordinary Iraqis driven into poverty by two years of war and international isolation lay out blankets in the streets of Amman to sell used jewelry and cheap trinkets.

Jordan’s latest standoff with the Americans occurred after the Jordanians refused to comply with CIA Director Robert M. Gates’ request to station U.N. inspectors along the Iraqi border and at the port of Aqaba. The United States reportedly supplied evidence that clothing, construction materials, spare machine parts, even computer gear were leaking in significant quantities across the Iraqi border, in violation of the U.N. sanctions.

U.S. officials have also complained that Jordan is allowing Iraqi front companies to operate in Amman to funnel illegal goods into Iraq.

The United States abruptly canceled joint military maneuvers with Jordan, and Jordanian officials began to fear for the $65 million in U.S. economic aid budgeted this year.

Jordan responded by tightening inspections at Zarka and other duty-free zones and along the Iraqi border and expanding the sand wall along the frontier, substantially damping the flow of illegal goods almost immediately. Jordan has reportedly agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to monitor the new containment measures, as long as the team is not monitoring the exports themselves in violation of Jordanian sovereignty.

But Jordanian businessmen say the new inspection measures have made life harder and more expensive for everyone operating across Jordan’s borders, doubling the amount of time it takes to clear goods through duty-free zones.

It is across the borders with Syria, Iran and Turkey that Iraq is obtaining most of its illegal goods, they say. Brokers still operate easily in duty-free zones like Zarka’s to export sanctions-busting goods into Syria, from which they are smuggled into Iraq, several businessmen said in interviews.

“In 1991, there were 3.5 million tons of cargo discharged at Aqaba,” said Tawfik Kawar, president of the Shipping Agents Assn. of Jordan, which has fought to end the U.S. naval blockade of the Jordanian port. “Let’s just imagine that all 3.5 million tons went to Iraq, all of it. Iraq has 18 million people, and from everything we hear, there is no shortage of food on the shelves. Where did this huge quantity come from? Only from Jordan? This is clear proof that there is cargo moving from all directions to Iraq.”

Jerdaneh, the finance minister, said he regularly reviews U.N. approvals for shipments to Iraq that Jordan itself would have questioned had the United Nations not permitted them. He pulled from his desk drawer a U.N. sanctions committee authorization for export of large quantities of agricultural chemicals to Iraq, including 30,000 liters of herbicides, 80,000 liters of pesticides and 220,000 liters of insecticides.

“You know that chemicals can be used to make weapons. When I first saw this request, I told them, ‘You’ll never get approval,’ ” Jerdaneh said. “They said, ‘We’ll get a lawyer in New York.’ They got themselves a lawyer, and they got approval in 24 hours. Twenty-four hours! I have asked for approval to send clothing to Iraq, including children’s clothing, and until now it has not come. For 45 days, it has been outstanding. Chlorine for water purification, outstanding 45 days. I think I’ll get myself a lawyer in New York!”

Jordanian officials and analysts say in private that Washington’s real motivation for pressuring Amman on sanctions violations appears to be to enlist Jordan’s backing for covert attempts to overthrow Hussein.

Officials on both sides have refused to comment on reports that King Hussein has permitted Jordan to become a major eavesdropping post for monitoring events in Iraq. But Jordan has said it will not be part of any attempts to interfere in neighboring countries’ affairs.

“The only word in the dictionary I can use is obsession-- this obsession with changing the regime in Baghdad is pushing people to do all sorts of things,” Information Minister Mahmoud Sharif said of the U.S. campaign against sanctions violations. “They want to strangle the regime in Iraq, regardless of the lives of 18 million people.”

It is not that Jordan, which bucked the world community in its support for Iraq during the Gulf War, necessarily wants to see Hussein stay in Baghdad. Jordanian officials are careful to distinguish between their support for Iraq and support for Hussein’s regime. Contacts with Iraqi officials have been suspended for a year. “The discussion that used to take place, the daily contact and so on, this all has ended,” one official said.

But public sentiment in Jordan is still substantially behind the Iraqi president, which King Hussein keeps in mind when he refrains from any public overtures against the regime in Baghdad.

“With most people, there is still a feeling that Saddam is the only one who tried to punish Israel, who tried to make Israel pay,” said a man sipping lemonade on a terrace in downtown Amman. “Everybody knew Saddam couldn’t win the war, but at least for a moment, we could rub our hearts with the idea--Israel will have to pay.”

At the Zarka duty-free zone, businessmen said it was taking up to six days to clear inspection, compared with the usual two or three. Many inspectors were simply refusing to look at suspect shipments in the hope of leaving potential trouble to their colleagues, they said. According to some estimates, there is $600 million in goods at Zarka awaiting inspection.

“Five to six days in the free zone? It’s a disaster!” complained a Lebanese businessman, chain-smoking next to his Mercedes while he waited for a shipment of food to be cleared to Iraq. “This is not a free zone any longer.”

Pressure from businessmen on the Jordanian government to bypass sanctions has been immense, officials admit. Much of Jordan’s industrial base was expanded on the basis of selling to markets in Iraq. Before the war, 34% of Jordan’s exports went to Iraq.

“The Americans keep talking about these front companies (for Iraq), but if there have been certain isolated incidents, that does not mean we’re not applying the sanctions,” Jerdaneh said. “This is a business community. People want to make money. They make a contract to import foodstuffs for Iraq that is not in violation of the sanctions. If in the meantime they do two or three transactions that are illegal, you cannot hold us responsible for that.”