Pentagon to hand over US missiles, warplanes to Jordan

On Saturday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved a request by Amman to keep a detachment of Air Force F-16s and a Patriot anti-aircraft missile battery in Jordan, according to Pentagon press secretary George Little. 

{mosads}The weapons are already in country as part of a joint U.S-Jordanian military exercise dubbed Eager Lion, according to the Department of Defense. 

“All other U.S. personnel assigned to Jordan for Eager Lion will depart at the conclusion of the exercise,” Little said in a statement.

“The United States enjoys a long-standing partnership with Jordan and is committed to its defense,” he added. 

Hagel’s decision to keep those American military assets inside Jordan has been seen by some military observers as the first step toward creating a no-fly zone along the Jordan’s border with Syria. 

Earlier this year, then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered a Patriot missile battery to be deployed along Turkey’s border with Syria. 

Saturday’s decision comes days after the White House decided to begin funneling arms to rebel forces battling to overthrow longtime Syrian president Bashar Assad. 

President Obama ordered the CIA to begin lining up mass weapon deliveries to opposition leaders in a classified order issued by the White House on Thursday, according to recent reports. 

Agency officials are already establishing collection and distribution points at clandestine bases inside Turkey and Jordan to begin moving weapons across the border to Syrian rebels, according to the Washington Post.  

Langley is also expanding its new Syria cell, in order to coordinate the weapons distribution program, the Post reports. 

Agency officials have recently shifted several intelligence targeting analysts from its counter terrorism center from assignments focusing on Pakistan and Yemen to new operations in Syria, recent reports state. 

Those CIA counter terrorism officers have paired up with agency counterparts tracking terror suspects affiliated to al Qaeda’s Iraqi branch to form the new Syria targeting group. 

American special operations forces have also reportedly been actively training former members of the Syrian Army in Jordan for the past several months. 

Those former army members are not affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the largest and most organized of the rebel factions fighting Assad’s forces in the country, the Associated Press reported back in March. 

At the time, Little said U.S. military trainers and advisers on the ground in Jordan are under orders to provide support to Amman only. 

Saturday’s deal with Jordan and the beginning of the CIA weapons program in Syria comes after U.S. intelligence officials concluded the Assad regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. 

Assad’s use of those weapons crossed a “red line” with the Obama administration, prompting the president to approve the arms supplies to Syria’s rebels. 

“We will be consulting with Congress on these matters in the coming weeks,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Thursday. 

“Put simply, the Assad regime should know that its actions have led us to increase the scope and scale of assistance that we provide to the opposition.”