Jordan Times
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Gov't increases efforts to release kidnapped driver in
Iraq
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — The government on Monday said that it was
intensifying its efforts to secure the release of a Jordanian driver kidnapped
in Iraq.
Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh said during his weekly briefing yesterday
that the government was working hard to free the driver.
Late last year, gunmen seized Mahmoud Salman Saaidat, a driver at the Kingdom's
embassy in Iraq, in the southern district of Saydiyah, which prompted the
government to announce that it was considering relocating its embassy staff. The
embassy was hit by a car bomb in August 2003 that killed 11 people and injured
around 60.
Judeh also took the occasion on Monday to comment on statements by former Syrian
vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam in a recent interview with Al Arabiya
television.
“These statements are an internal Syrian affair that Jordan will not interfere
in,” the spokesperson said.
In his interview with the Dubai-based station, Khaddam publicly accused Syrian
President Bashar Assad of threatening Rafiq Hariri just months before the
Lebanese ex-premier's February 2005 murder.
“Jordan closely follows these statements as Khaddam was a pillar in Syria's
political system,” Judeh added.
He reiterated the Kingdom's stance on the necessity of cooperating with the
international committee investigating Hariri's assassination.
With regard to Jordanian detainees in Israeli jails, Judeh pointed out that
talks with Israel on the issue were under way, noting that 17 Jordanian
detainees were released last year.
He said that more details in this regard will be disclosed soon.
On Iraq, the spokesperson reiterated the Kingdom's stance on the entry of former
Iraqi officials who were released from jails recently, saying that the Kingdom
was not notified of these officials coming to Jordan.
He stressed that the government did not accept or refuse their entrance as was
reported in the press because the government did not receive a request for their
entrance in the first place.
Judeh also said that the government closely follows developments in Palestine,
stressing that Jordan does not interfere in Palestinian internal affairs
following the differences between the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas and
Islamic Jihad on the benefit of going ahead with a truce with Israel.
Judeh underlined the need to return to the implementation of the roadmap and
preserve the peace process, commenting that the Kingdom supports the PA and
Palestinians to realise an independent state.