Saturday, 10 January 2009
Bethlehem - Jordan called home its Ambassador to Israel on Friday night, according to the Israeli daily paper Yediot Ahronoth.
Ambassador Ali Al-Ayad was pulled from his office in Tel Aviv on the orders of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry and asked to stay in Amman for the time being.
There have been dozens of protests on the streets of the Jordanian capital condemning the Israeli attacks on Gaza, and the Jordanian leadership has expressed deep concern over the Israeli violence over the past two weeks.
Jordan, which has a near majority of residents with Palestinian roots, is one of the few countries in the Arab world with diplomatic relations with Israel including Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. There is an Israeli representative in Qatar, but no Qatari representative in Israel.
Jordan was the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
It is unclear under what circumstances Jordan will ask its Ambassador to Israel to return to the area.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister was among dozens that participated in the drafting of the UN Security Council Resolution, passed Friday morning local time, which was ignored by Israel and Gaza factions.
