Patriot missile battery. Photo: Wikipedia

Jordan said Sunday it is in talks with “friendly countries” about the possibility of deploying Patriot missiles on its territory after a similar move by Turkey.

“Jordan wishes to deploy Patriot missile batteries in order to boost its defense capabilities and help protect the country,” Information Minister Mohammad Momani told a news conference.

“We are currently at the stage of talks with friendly states,” said Momani, who is also government spokesman, declining to elaborate.

AFP reported last week that four batteries of Patriot missiles had arrived in Turkey as part of a mission to protect the Turkish border from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Jordan, which has absorbed nearly 500,000 Syrian refugees since the start of that countries civil war, has voiced similar concerns as Turkey.

“We wish and we demand Patriot missiles. We always talk about this because we want to protect ourselves,” Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told Qatar’s Al-Sharq newspaper last week.