Israelis and Jordanians said to meet secretly amid worries over rebel surge in Syria
Reports say Amman acting as mediator between Israel and HTS as neighbors seek to work out emerging threats from north; Iranian attempts to smuggle arms via Jordan also discussed

Senior Israeli officials reportedly held secret talks with Jordanian military brass late last week on the fallout that arose from the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power, as regional powers sought to address worries of rippling instability in the wake of the lightning overthrow of the regime.
The meetings held in Jordan on Friday largely revolved around possible threats posed by the jihadist force that pushed Assad out and took over Syria, as well as countering Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons overland to Palestinian terror groups, according to several reports in Hebrew language media Saturday.
Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of the Israel Defense Force’s Military Intelligence Directorate, represented Israel at the talks, according to the reports. The pair met with Ahmad Husni, who heads Jordan’s General Intelligence Department, and senior Jordanian military commanders, according to the Walla news site.
There was no confirmation of the meetings from official sources in Jerusalem or Amman.
Western countries and their allies in the region have scrambled to adapt since insurgents led by jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, drove Assad from power and into asylum in Russia a week ago.
According to the Walla report, which cited multiple Israeli officials, both the Israelis and the Jordanian officials discussed their own contacts with rebel groups attempting to build a new Syrian government. Amman has acted as a key conduit for Israel to communicate with the insurgents, including HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, the report said.

HTS has worked to establish security and start a political transition after seizing Damascus on December 7 and has tried to reassure a public both stunned by Assad’s fall and concerned about extremist jihadis among the rebels. Insurgent leaders say the group has broken with its extremist past, but US officials say they remain skeptical.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with counterparts from eight Arab nations and Turkey in Aqaba, Jordan, to discuss Syria and sign off on a set of principles meant to guide the country’s transition to a peaceful, nonsectarian and inclusive government.
Blinken on Saturday confirmed that the US had been in touch with HTS, but declined to detail the direct contacts with the group. He said it was important for the US to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intends to govern in a transition period.

Jordan is widely regarded as a pivotal military and strategic ally for Israel and the US, which have both supported the continued rule of the country’s Hashemite monarchy as a major stabilizing force in the region.
The country’s location along Israel’s long eastern border, and sandwiched between Iraq, Syria and the Gulf, also make it a crucial bulwark against attempts to smuggle Iranian weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank or elsewhere. According to Walla, the growing threat of weapons smuggling by Iran via Jordan to Palestinian terror groups in the West Bank was also discussed during the Friday talks.

Israeli officials have spoken out with increasing alarm in recent years over what they say is a growing phenomenon of Tehran flooding weapons into the West Bank or Israel proper to be used in terror attacks or criminal activity. The use of the artery could grow with the loss of Syria as a viable conduit for the Islamic Republic’s weapons shipments.
The head of Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy, admitted Saturday that the Lebanese terror group had lost its arms supply route through Syria following the toppling of Assad’s regime.
While the rebels’ success has dovetailed neatly with Israel’s own aims of seeking to weaken Iran and its proxies on Israel’s borders, some have expressed concern that instability could spread beyond Syria to other countries where there is popular anger against undemocratic leaders.
Some officials in Israel are reportedly worried that extremists opposed to Jordan’s King Abdullah II could seize on the rebels’ gains to launch their own insurgency, undermining security for both Amman and Jerusalem.

Citing senior Israeli sources, the Kan public broadcaster reported that discussions over the possibility of the Hashemite Kingdom being toppled as well have been held in the high-level security cabinet, among other forums. According to the Israel Hayom daily, Israeli officials worry that a loss of stability in Jordan could open up the territory to more Iranian smuggling attempts.
Israeli officials also fear that there could be a copycat effect in the West Bank, with Palestinian extremists seeking to replicate the rebels’ advances by carrying out terror attacks, Israel Hayom reported.
According to the tabloid, the military has decided to beef up security around West Bank settlements over the worries.

Recent days have seen the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group battling the Palestinian Authority in Jenin, a northern West Bank city that has become a hotbed for terror groups, many of them allied with Hamas.
The fighting was set off by the PA’s arrest of several senior terror suspects from the group earlier this month.
Agencies contributed to this report.