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Allies eye forward base in Jordan near border with Iraq

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, May 8, 2002

As Jordan's King Abdullah comes to Washington for meetings with President Bush, he is reviewing a British proposal for a forward military base along Jordan's frontier with Iraq for use in any campaign to topple President Saddam Hussein.

Arab diplomatic sources said U.S. and British military personnel have examined the frontier area for use as a forward base in an attack against Baghdad. One goal is to ensure that Iraq will be stopped in firing medium-range missiles from the western desert toward Israel, Middle East Newsline reported

Jordan's King Abdullah will meet President George Bush and senior administration officials in Washington on Wednesday. The talks, which will include a meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, are expected to focus on ways to bolster Jordan to resist any Iraqi attack on the kingdom.

The sources said London and Washington have expressed interest in using existing Jordanian facilities to house special operations forces and aircraft to patrol western Iraq for Scud-class missile launches.

In 1991, Iraq fired 42 Al Hussein medium-range missiles toward Israel. U.S. combat aircraft failed to stop any of the launches, which targeted the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The sources said Washington estimates Iraq may be preparing to install chemical warheads on its Scud arsenal in any war against the United States. The U.S. assessment is that Iraq would fire its missiles toward Israel and Kuwait.

[On Tuesday, Iraqi gunners fired surface-to-air missiles toward British and U.S. warplanes that patrolled the no-fly zone in northern Iraq. The allied aircraft, guided by early-warning aircraft, were not hit and returned to the Turkish base at Incerlik.]

"Jordan is another Muslim country that is making one of the largest contributions to the coalition in Afghanistan," U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the World Affairs Council last week. "And its courageous king, Abdullah, has condemned terrorism in clear and heart-felt language."

The Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas said any allied base in Jordan would be under U.S. control. The newspaper said last week that a favored site is Areiha, a Jordanian prison located six kilometers from the Iraqi border. The facility would be used for reconnaissance operations in western Iraq.

Jordan's cooperation with the United States has resulted in expanded international cooperation to help the kingdom obtain fugitives charged with security-related crimes. On Wednesday, the London-based Al Hayat daily reported that Jordan has obtained the extradition of Mohammed Shamayleh, regarded as the chief suspect in a $100 million embezzlement scheme that affected Jordan's security services. The newspaper said Shamayleh will arrive from an unnamed country on Wednesday to face trial in the Hashemite kingdom.

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