Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
Jordanian hostages freed
By Khalid Dalal
AMMAN — Militant kidnappers on Monday released three Jordanian truck drivers,
Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher announced yesterday.
Muasher told reporters that Mohammad Rasheed,
Qasim Gharib and Nabil Mohammad were freed along with a Sudanese national and
were expected to arrive in Jordan late Monday.
Al Jazeera TV reported Sunday that a militant group, calling itself “Shura
Council of the Mujahedeen of Fallujah,” held four Jordanian drivers hostage for
transporting supplies to US forces in Iraq.
Holding a joint press conference with Muasher, visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshiyar Zebari condemned kidnapping of “innocent people and journalists.”
“It is a strange phenomenon to the Iraqi people and we hope to get rid of it
soon,” Zebari said.
Zebari added that the Iraqi government was still following up on the abduction
of two French journalists, Le Figaro correspondent Georges Malbrunot and Radio
France Internationale reporter Christian Chesnot, by Iraqi militants last month.
“The Iraqi government offered all available intelligence information to France
and will continue working to secure their release,” he said.
Zebari arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit as part of a regional tour of
Yemen, Sudan and Egypt. He said he discussed with Muasher security issues and
Iraq's frozen assets in Jordanian banks, as well as preparations for the October
meeting of the Jordanian-Iraqi Higher Committee.
The two officials also held talks on the upcoming meeting of Iraq's neighbouring
countries, scheduled to be held in Amman.
“We seek to exchange point of views with our neighbouring countries on the
situation in Iraq and discuss their roles to help us ensure security and
stability,” he said.
On Ahmed Chalabi, convicted in absentia in Jordan in 1992 on several counts of
fraud, Zebari said “this issue should be dealt with within its legal and
judiciary framework.”
“We do not want to politicise the case... And we do not want it to harm the
friendly and brotherly relationship between Amman and Baghdad,” he said.
Chalabi was sentenced by the State Security Court to 22 years of hard labour and
ordered to repay more than JD350 million in embezzled funds in the Petra Bank
case.
Meanwhile, the first post-war Iraqi ambassador to Jordan, Atta Abdul Wahab, is
expected to submit his credentials to His Majesty King Abdullah today.