Shaibani praises Amman’s “intensive communications” four days after Damascus denied coordinating its strikes

In the same Bahrain session, Shaibani said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Syrian territory in less than two years, killing dozens, and called for a return to the lines in place before 8 December 2024 and for implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, with UN Security Council Resolution 497 as the reference point on the occupied Golan. The figure is the Syrian government’s, relayed through SANA and picked up by Anadolu and TRT; it comes with no published methodology, and the window — roughly 23 months — is itself imprecise. The Files found no independent tracker corroboration. Arab News additionally reports that Shaibani addressed recent Israeli strikes in the Daraa countryside and said intensive communications with Jordanian officials had helped contain the situation. That line is single-sourced to Arab News’s write-up, and the date, location and casualties of the strikes he referred to could not be established.

The timing sits awkwardly. Around 27 October, Jordan said its own strikes on Syrian territory had killed more than 20 ISIS militants — a figure reported by Asharq Al-Awsat English and Al Jazeera, and a claim by the combatant state rather than an independent count. The Arab Weekly’s headline captured what Damascus did next: “Jordan says Syria strikes hit ISIS targets, Damascus denies coordination.” Four days later its foreign minister was in Bahrain crediting Jordanian channels with calming the south. Neither government has been asked to reconcile the two positions. The southern file has been active throughout October: Syrian state media said Israeli forces killed a disabled man during a raid in the south on 22 October, reported by Al Jazeera, without established Israeli comment.

Assessment: The contradiction is probably not a lie so much as a division of labour: a quiet security channel with Amman on jihadist cells and the Israeli front, and a public posture that refuses to concede another state’s right to bomb Syrian territory. Governments that cannot yet defend their borders often run exactly this pairing. It also explains the Mecca pact pitch — Damascus is shopping for a guarantor because its present arrangements are deniable contacts rather than commitments. Treat the 1,000-strike figure as advocacy until a tracker publishes its own count, and treat the Daraa claim as unconfirmed: one outlet’s rendering of one minister, with no Israeli or Jordanian corroboration.