Jordan walks a tightrope after downing Iranian drones and missiles

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. CNN — As the skies over Amman and other Jordanian cities lit up with Jordan’s interception of Iranian drones and missiles headed for Israel last weekend, officials in the country were notably silent for hours. “The military forces of our country are carefully monitoring the movements of Jordan during the punitive attack of the Zionist regime, and if they participate in a possible action, they will be the next target,” an unidentified source in the Islamic Republic’s armed forces told the semi-official Fars news agency. Within hours, Jordan summoned the Iranian ambassador in Amman to protest what it said was “harmful disinformation.” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Monday that Amman will “retaliate” against Iran if such “disinformation” continues, adding that his country faces longstanding threats from Iranian-backed groups accused of smuggling drugs and weapons. Those frustrations were laid bare by Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister, who ruled out breaking relations, but said the Jordan-Israel peace treaty is now “a document collecting dust.” As Israel weighs how to respond to Iran’s attack, the region sits on a knife’s edge with the very real threat of an all-out war in the Middle East.