In the latest sign of the intense pressures Syria’s war has placed on its neighbors, Jordan’s prime minister said Thursday, January 17 that his country would not accept thousands of new refugees likely to flee Syria if President Bashar Assad’s government collapsed, The New York Times reported. “We do not encourage our Syrian brothers to come to Jordan because their country needs them more and they should remain there,” the prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, said. “We will stop them and keep them in their country.” His comments underscored mounting fears in Jordan that it was being destabilized by the influx of more than 200,000 refugees and by the threat of a spreading militancy from the war. Jordan has already come under criticism from human rights groups for turning back Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria, in what is seen as an effort to maintain Jordan’s delicate demographic balance.