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Islamist Threat Constrains Jordan's Syria Policy

Jordan has been successful in persuading the Obama administration to pay attention to the Islamist threat in Syria.
Jordan's King Abdullah looks on during the opening of the Arab League summit in Doha March 26, 2013. A summit of Arab heads of state opened in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday expected to focus on the war in Syria as well as on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (QATAR - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTXXXQQ
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King Abdullah II is no longer hiding his worries about the fate of post-Assad Syria and the danger of it falling into the hands of Islamists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, the king’s discomfort toward whom is locally and regionally well known. American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in The Atlantic, quoting the Jordanian monarch’s criticism of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who are brought together by a background of political Islam. Despite the king’s position stemming from foreign concerns, it also figures into the domestic equation.

These royal concerns are not new. Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, the Islamist opposition, which represents the greatest political opponent to the regime, has gambled on the revolution's success simultaneously with that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia. This increases the possible direct and indirect gains to be made regarding Jordanian political reform and participation in the political process.

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