AMMAN, 27 March 2003 — A massive sandstorm hit the Jordanian town of Ruweished yesterday, some 80 kilometers from the Jordan-Iraq border.
The sandstorm caused 19 tents at the refugee camps set up by the Jordanian Red Crescent to be blown away. According to the International Red Cross, refugees in four of the tents were relocated to alternate tents out of concern for their safety, and some tents where taken down for fear that they too would be ripped apart by the strong winds.
The refugee camps in Ruweished have seen no Iraqi refugees since the start of the war. The camps, which have the capacity to cater to over 10,000 refugees, are still virtually empty.
A representative from a humanitarian group involved in maintaining the camps, who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity, said: "There is a huge possibility that we might take down all the tents and close the camps altogether."
"Since there are no Iraqi refugees coming into the area we might actually move the camps across the boarder into Iraqi territory. This way, the Iraqi Red Crescent can utilize them," he added.
Arab News also spoke with Suliaman Al-Amoush, a retired Jordanian military man helping to oversee the daily activities of the camps.
"I think that the Iraqi people who are near the border are nomads," he said. "If need be, they would rather relocate into the desert since they are more familiar with the surroundings there and so that's where they would feel safest," he said.
In another development, Jordan and Iraq have discussed measures to dispatch to Iraq as quickly as possible goods destined for the embattled country, following a row between the two, Jordanian Trade Minister Salah Bashir told reporters yesterday.
Bashir said he discussed the measures with Iraq's ambassador to Jordan, Sabah Yassin, and with his Iraqi counterpart Mohamad Mehdi Saleh, who accused Jordan on Tuesday of blocking goods for neighboring Iraq at the border.
Bashir said he telephoned Saleh on Tuesday and emphasized during the call "the strength of the brotherly ties between the two countries", informing him of efforts "to find a mechanism to ensure the continued flow of goods to Iraq".
"We will study the means by which we can transport and guarantee the speedy and continuous flow of these goods as well as identify the priorities concerning the humanitarian needs in Iraq," Bashir said.
Yassin also said he discussed with Bashir how best Iraq and Jordan can cooperate on trade issues, particularly since the suspension last week of the US-approved oil-for-food program.
Late last year Jordan and Iraq renewed their annual trade protocol, allowing Amman to import 5.5 million tons of oil from Iraq, which takes 20 percent of Jordan's overall exports.
Iraq also get supplies through Jordan in line with the oil-for-food program, but Bashir told a news conference Tuesday that these exports were halted after the US suspended the program, leaving businessmen in Jordan without a mechanism to deliver the products.
Bashir and Yassin also met representatives of the Jordanian federation of pharmaceutical firms, who pledged to continue providing Baghdad with all its medical needs despite the US and British attacks on Iraq.
Federation chief Mohamad Fityani told Petra that 14 firms had sent to Baghdad a large consignment of drugs destined for Iraq before the start of the war and would truck the rest and any other requests as soon as possible.
On Tuesday the Iraqi trade minister accused Jordan of blocking trucks taking goods into Iraq at the Ruweished border area, prompting quick denials from Jordanian officials who said trucks with supplies continue to enter Iraq.
