AMMAN, 3 September 2004 — The Jordanian government has asked the International Energy Agency to conduct “its own measurement” of radiation affecting Jordan from Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor in Negev, government spokeswoman Asma Khader announced yesterday at a weekly media briefing.
“It is not the first time we do that. We asked the IEA in 1992 to make its own measurement of radiation to compare it with our national evaluation of the Dimona radiation,” Khader said.
However, the spokeswoman insisted that Jordanian measurement of Dimona radiation affecting the Kingdom was “within the natural limits”. The Jordanian move came in response to an outcry by the Islamic-led opposition that the Dimona radiation was polluting the southern part of Jordan. Opposition and trade union leaders also cast doubt on the precision of evaluations by government experts.
Khader said that arrangements would go ahead for holding a meeting of foreign ministers of countries surrounding Iraq in Amman at the end of September after the Amman government turned down an Iranian request to convene the meeting earlier for discussing the fighting that was raging at the Iraqi holy town of Najaf.
“The Iranian move has been ignored particularly after consultations between Baghdad and Tehran on this issue,” she said. Jordan has also conducted its own consultations with some of Iraqi neighbors. The meeting is due to group Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Egypt.
Khader denounced the abduction of two French journalists in Iraq by armed groups. “Jordan is against of all types of kidnappings because such moves will not serve the quest of the Iraqi people or the country’s stability,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Action Front yesterday condemned a United States-led campaign for a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and end to its intervention in the country.
The IAF, Jordan’s largest political party, said in a statement: “The IAF condemns the US policy and warn other countries against joining the US trench because by doing so they will put themselves in the anti-Arab and anti-Islamic quarter, and they will consequently pay a high price for this attitude.”
The draft resolution is reportedly backed by France. The IAF also urged the Security Council, “to reject the US draft resolution and uphold the right of Syria and Lebanon in exercising their sovereignty over their soil and through their constitutional institutions to the exclusion of any foreign meddling in their internal affairs”.
The statement referred to an upcoming vote in the Lebanese Parliament to amend the constitution and extend President Emile Lahoud’s term of office by three years.
