{"id":1915,"date":"2026-08-08T05:35:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:35:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:35:47","slug":"iran-goes-looking-for-love-in-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1915","title":{"rendered":"Iran Goes Looking for Love in Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In late July, Iran struck a U.S. military base in Jordan, killing three American service members. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps followed up with an unusual series of messages to the Jordanian people: \u201cYou know well that we have no hostility toward your country,\u201d the IRGC declared in a statement published on Iran\u2019s Fars News Agency. \u201cRather, we love you, noble people who understand the suffering and injustice endured by the Palestinian people more than any other nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another message cheekily thanked unnamed Jordanians for providing targeting information for the Iranian strikes. A third appeared to address Jordanian critics of the operation, saying that the United States, not Iran, had \u201cviolated your territorial integrity and sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeals to Jordanians speak to a concerted effort, fueled by Iran\u2019s growing confidence in its regional position since the start of the war with the United States and Israel, to convince the Arab public that an alliance with the United States is not worth the cost. The Islamic Republic has tried to drive such a wedge ever since its founding in 1979. But today\u2019s push reflects Tehran\u2019s perception of what Iranian officials call a \u201cnew equation of power\u201d in the Middle East\u2014one that includes Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Iran has demonstrated its willingness to defend this position through missile strikes on seven different Arab countries that host U.S. bases. At least three were aimed at Jordan, including a surprise attack on July 28. Now the IRGC is reaching out to Jordanians with professions of solidarity and love.<\/p>\n

The switch from bombardment to flattery may seem sudden, and Jordan may seem an unlikely place for the IRGC to go looking for friends. Unlike Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan has no significant Shiite minority to form a social base for the spread of Iranian influence. But Tehran has both a military rationale and an ideological one.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s military purpose is clear: Jordan houses radar and anti-missile systems that help Israel detect and deter incoming Iranian fire, and it lacks the military capacity to retaliate against Iranian strikes. Jordan also lacks the economic clout that seems to have helped the United Arab Emirates\u2014an essential export hub for Iranian goods\u2014cut a tacit nonaggression pact with Tehran, at least for the moment.<\/p>\n

Tehran also hopes to exploit a fissure between Jordan\u2019s people and their government, which depends on the protection and patronage of the United States. Some Jordanians have recently called for the expulsion of the U.S. military, a movement fueled in part by deep sympathy for the Palestinian cause. Some 60 percent of Jordan\u2019s population is of Palestinian origin.<\/p>\n

Ever since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, street protests have regularly erupted in Jordan. These have been supported by the country\u2019s king and queen and by prominent government officials, whether out of conviction or a belief that the public needs to let off steam. Queen Rania gave an interview to Christiane Amanpour two weeks after the Hamas massacre on October 7 in which she spoke of Israeli actions as a \u201cgenocide\u201d\u2014a gesture that was widely seen in Jordan (and Israel) as setting a new tone of fury regarding Israel\u2019s behavior in Gaza.<\/p>\n

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Jordanian demonstrators did more than let off steam: They pledged support for Hamas. Islamist networks in Jordan began gaining strength, leading the government to ban the local chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood last year. In late 2024, Jordanians, two of whom were members of the Brotherhood, carried out two cross-border terrorist attacks in Israel.<\/p>\n

Violence in Gaza has ebbed since a cease-fire took hold late last year, but Israel\u2019s gradual, de facto annexation of the West Bank, which has accelerated in the past few years under Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government, is of deep concern to Jordan. The specter of a fuller or even formal annexation\u2014however unlikely at the moment\u2014raises profound fears in Jordan of a flood of Palestinian refugees, which might upset the country\u2019s fragile demographic balance and amplify anger at Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians believe they know what\u2019s going on in Jordan,\u201d Amer al-Sabaileh, a Jordanian security expert and columnist, told me. \u201cThis could be a multilayered strategy\u2014missiles, then propaganda, then maybe activating cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Iran\u2019s bets may well prove wrong. For all their sympathy with the Palestinian cause, Jordanians have long been profoundly distrustful of Iran\u2019s revolutionary Shiite project, partly for sectarian reasons, given that Jordan\u2019s people are almost all Sunni Muslims. Tehran\u2019s latest missile blitz aimed at its neighbors is also taking a toll. Recent polling in Arab countries suggests that any sympathy Iran gained during the initial phase of the war this spring, when it was seen as a victim of Israeli aggression, evaporated with Tehran\u2019s recent bout of air strikes on Arab countries, says Michael Robbins, the director of the Arab Barometer, a public-opinion-research organization.<\/p>\n

Jordanian officials, who spoke obliquely of defending Jordanian sovereignty during the first phase of the Israeli-U.S. war earlier this year, have taken a firm line against \u201cIranian aggression\u201d in recent public statements. So have some of the country\u2019s government-aligned journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cJordan is subjected to Iranian aggression, full stop,\u201d wrote the columnist Hussein al-Rawasdeh, in an article in the newspaper al-Dustour<\/i> that criticized those calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as disloyal. \u201cDo you stand with your country?\u201d Other columnists went further, suggesting that the Iranian strikes might even stiffen Arab resolve and help form a more united front.<\/p>\n

But Arab countries confront limited options. \u201cUltimately, they all face the same strategic calculation that adopting a harder line against Iran, especially as ultra-hard-liners gain influence in Tehran, will place them more firmly in the crosshairs,\u201d Ahmad Sharawi, a senior analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told me. Their primary weapon, he said, will remain \u201cdiplomatic condemnations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tehran wants the Arab public to balk at the cost of allying with the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global"],"yoast_head":"\nIran Goes Looking for Love in Jordan - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran Goes Looking for Love in Jordan - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tehran wants the Arab public to balk at the cost of allying with the United States.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T05:35:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Iran Goes Looking for Love in Jordan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-08T05:35:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915\"},\"wordCount\":1023,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/cd8a1cd725676f1de18f51dec58e7981.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Global\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1915\",\"name\":\"Iran Goes Looking for Love in Jordan - 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