Jordanians question timing, messages of top military brass
The Dec. 30 BBC interview with Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Freihat, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, raised eyebrows in Amman and prompted local commentators to speculate about the purpose and meaning of Freihat’s statements.
Senior Jordanian military officials traditionally keep a low public profile and almost never make political statements or give in-depth military assessments of local or regional issues, especially to the media. So it was unusual, and unexpected, for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Freihat, to give an exclusive 16-minute interview to BBC Arabic Dec. 30. The precedent was a remarkable incident in itself, but it was the content of the rare interview that raised eyebrows in Amman and prompted local commentators to speculate about the purpose and meaning of Freihat’s statements.
The interview came in the wake of the terrorist attack in the southern city of Karak Dec. 18, resulting in 10 civilian and security deaths, and public complaints that the government had failed to provide consistent information about the home-grown terror cell that was uncovered by accident. The interview was also released following the fall of eastern Aleppo in Syria Dec. 16, and the evacuation of rebel fighters there to their stronghold in Idlib.
