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JERUSALEM — Jordan said Tuesday that it had arrested 16 Jordanian citizens with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood who were plotting to manufacture and launch rockets to "sow chaos" across the kingdom.
The arrests were the culmination of a years-long surveillance operation targeting members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Jordanian monarchy has long viewed as a destabilizing force, and highlighted the risks currently facing Arab governments that maintain relations with Israel - and the enduring regional popularity of the transnational Islamist group - as the Gaza war grinds on in its 18th month.
Jordan's General Intelligence Department said in a statement Tuesday that it had been monitoring some of the plotters, who were allegedly members of different Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated cells, as early as 2021. Members of one cell were arrested in summer 2023, officials said, while Jordanian authorities broke up another cell, which had managed to manufacture a short-range rocket prototype, in February.
In confessional videos released by Jordanian intelligence, two alleged plotters said they had traveled to Beirut, where they met a man named Abu Ahmed, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's Lebanese branch. He provided them with cash and training on how to manufacture crude rockets with machine tools. Other suspects were implicated in recruiting members, manufacturing drones, and storing explosives and automatic weapons, Jordanian authorities said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in 1928, has numerous national branches and offshoots, including the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Jordan's monarchy has for decades viewed the movement as a threat. The Jordanian branch of the organization lost its license and was officially dissolved by the government in 2020, although its political wing, the Islamic Action Front, has continued to garner growing popular support during subsequent elections.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and sparked a devastating Israeli counterattack on Gaza, Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Jordan have agitated against King Abdullah II - who has maintained stable relations with Israel and hosts U.S. troops - and led massive rallies against Israel and boycotts against American brands. In September, the Muslim Brotherhood's political front won nearly a quarter of seats in the Jordanian parliament following a campaign during which it called on Abdullah to suspend Jordan's peace agreement with Israel.
Last year, Jordanian authorities broke up a plot by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to smuggle weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, according to Reuters.
In a statement, the Muslim Brotherhood's Jordanian branch on Tuesday disavowed any connection to the alleged plots and said it has "always supported Jordan's security and stability and has always been and continues to be an integral part of the nation's fabric, putting Jordan's supreme interests above all other considerations."
"The alleged individual acts, under the pretext of supporting the [Palestinian] resistance ... the Muslim Brotherhood has no knowledge of them and has no connection to them," the group said.
In the confessional videos released Tuesday, several plotters said they had traveled to Lebanon to receive training and returned to their city of Zarqa - long known as a hotbed of militancy - to manufacture rockets in secret warehouses. Following the public disclosures, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that he called his Jordanian counterpart to offer Lebanon's "full solidarity" and cooperation, and affirmed that Lebanon would not be a launching pad for activities threatening friendly countries.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned what he called a terrorist plot and expressed his "absolute confidence" in Jordan under Abdullah's leadership.
"The Palestinian presidency stressed that those who attempt to target and weaken Jordan are actually targeting and weakening Palestine," Abbas's office said.
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