What this actor is
Syria's southern neighbour, and the state through which the south's trade route to the Gulf runs. Jordan hosted a large Syrian refugee population through the war, spent the late Assad years interdicting captagon and arms across the border, and has struck inside Syria from the air since 2023 against what it calls traffickers and, from October 2026, against what it calls ISIS positions. With the transitional government it agreed in January 2025 to form a joint security committee against smuggling and ISIS; after its 26 October 2026 strikes in Daraa and Sweida, which Damascus said were uncoordinated and which Daraa's health directorate said killed seven civilians, the two foreign ministers agreed on the urgent need for such a committee. It also hosted the US-mediated Israel–Syria round of 23 August 2026 without being a party to it.
Confidence: Moderate Reviewed 2026-10-29
Objectives
A southern Syria that exports neither captagon, weapons nor fighters across the border; a Damascus able and willing to police its south; the Nasib corridor open for Jordanian and Gulf trade; and the return of the Syrian refugees Jordan hosted through the war. Amman stated the first of these as the test of the new government within a month of the fall of Damascus, and has used force inside Syria when it judged the test failed.
Sources: Reuters↗ · Jordanian government statements (Petra, Armed Forces)↗
Trajectory
From interdiction to intervention and back toward cooperation. Jordan's pre-emptive strikes against traffickers began under the late Assad state; the transition produced a stated commitment to a joint security committee in January 2025 and ministerial visits in 2026, while the strikes continued — deeper into Sweida in May 2026, and in October 2026 against what Amman called ISIS positions, with civilian deaths that Damascus condemned and a one-day closure of the crossing. The joint committee the two sides agreed on after the strikes is the same instrument they agreed to form twenty-one months earlier.
Sources: Reuters↗ · Official government statements · Established international media reporting
Relationships
A working relationship with the transitional government, tested by the October 2026 strikes and the public dispute over whether they were coordinated; a venue for the US-mediated Israel–Syria track; alignment with the Gulf states on the transition's success; and a standing interest in the Sweida file, which Jordan's deputy prime minister discussed in Damascus in September 2026. Jordan is not a party to the Israel–Syria negotiation and is not recorded as one.
Sources: Al Jazeera English↗ · Official government statements
What this record does not cover
Jordan's West Bank interface, its treaty water and gas with Israel and its role in Gaza police training are the Levant module's record; its airspace and basing in the Iran–Israel war are the Iran–Gulf module's. Jordan's own counter-terrorism investigation of the 23 October 2026 Karak church attack is a Jordanian matter and is cited here only as the stated trigger of the strikes.
Not published for Jordan and SyriaPosture (objectives, constraints, leverage)
Elsewhere in Syria
Last reviewed — 2026-10-29