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LONDON: Jordanian and Syrian anti-narcotics authorities have cracked down on drug networks in a cross-border coordination effort, foiling several smuggling attempts and seizing large quantities of toxic substances.

The Anti-Narcotics Departments of Jordan and Syria announced in a joint statement on Sunday that their forces have foiled seven smuggling attempts along the Jordanian-Syrian border and seized nearly one million narcotic pills that were intended for illegal distribution across the Middle East.

It is the first major operation between the two countries’ anti-narcotics authorities since the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, which has been accused of profiting from the production and trafficking of drugs, specifically the Captagon pill.

Jordanian and Syrian authorities said that the joint operation was the result of months of field coordination and intelligence sharing, which led to the dismantling of organized criminal networks that posed a direct threat to the security of both countries.

Authorities arrested multiple individuals involved in criminal activities in both Jordan and Syria, disrupting their plans to manufacture, smuggle, and distribute illegal drugs, according to the Petra news agency.

The anti-narcotics departments of Jordan and Syria reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing security and intelligence cooperation to combat drug trafficking and smuggling across the region.

They reaffirmed their determination to protect society from the dangers of narcotics and their destabilizing effects on regional security, the Petra added.

The operation follows a Jordanian-Syrian agreement in January to establish a joint security committee aimed at securing their border, combating arms and drug smuggling, and preventing the resurgence of the terror group Daesh.

WASHINGTON: The war in Gaza has “not yet” ended, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, describing the release of the hostages held by Hamas as the first phase, while details on what happens after that still need to be worked out.

He told NBC’s Meet the Press that Hamas had “basically” agreed to President Donald Trump’s proposal and the framework for releasing the hostages, while meetings were underway to coordinate the logistics of that.

“They have also agreed, in principle and generalities, to enter into this idea about what’s going to happen afterwards,” he said. “A lot of details are going to have to be worked out there.”

Speaking later to Fox News Sunday, Rubio said that nothing was certain.
“No one can tell you it’s a 100 percent guarantee,” he said. Rubio told NBC the US would know “very quickly” whether Hamas was serious or not during the current technical talks to coordinate the release of the hostages.
“Priority number one, the one that we think we can achieve something very quickly on hopefully, is the release of all the hostages in exchange for Israel moving back” to the yellow line — where Israel stood within Gaza in the middle of August — Rubio said.
He described the second phase of the long-term future of Gaza as “even harder.”
“What happens after Israel pulls back to the yellow line, and potentially beyond that, as this thing develops? How do you create this Palestinian technocratic leadership that’s not Hamas?” Rubio said.

“How do you disarm any sort of terrorist groups that are going to be building tunnels and conducting attacks against Israel? How do you get them to demobilize?“
“All that work, that’s going to be hard, but that’s critical, because without that, you’re not going to have lasting peace,” he added.