JORDAN ARMED FORCES REPORT MARCH 15 SYRIAN

S E C R E T AMMAN 000716 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/18/2034 TAGS: PARM PREL ETTC MASS IR JO SUBJECT: JORDAN ARMED FORCES REPORT MARCH 15 SYRIAN OVERFLIGHT REF: A. AMMAN 0710 ¶B. STATE 24954 Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 (b),(c) and (d). ¶1. (S) Pursuant to reftel March 17 demarche request DATT delivered points to General Khaled Sarayreh, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces, on March 17 and alerted him to the possibility of an overflight as early as that day (Ref B). Sarayreh responded that he would alert the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) to be on the lookout for such an event. Ambassador followed up by delivering the points to Chief of the Royal Court Nasser Al-Lozi on March 18. ¶2. (S) Following the March 17 demarche, RJAF conferred with civil aviation authorities at Queen Alia International Airport and found that a Ukrainian-made IL-76 cargo plane (equivalent to a USAF C-5) originated in Syria and crossed Jordanian airspace on March 15 bound for Sudan. General Sarayreh informed DATT of the overflight on March 19 and told him that RJAF has no knowledge of the plane's cargo but is confident that it arrived in Sudan. Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman Beecroft