AMMAN, 20 July 2004 — The United States is seeking agreement from Jordan not to prosecute US soldiers abroad, after failing to secure their immunity at the International Criminal Court, a Jordanian official told AFP yesterday.
A senior US official arrived here Sunday following Washington’s decision last month to withdraw its controversial attempt to renew its immunity for its troops from war crimes prosecution at The Hague-base court for another year. The US Embassy in Amman confirmed US Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs Lincoln Bloomfield arrived Sunday for talks.
The Jordanian official said the visit was linked to a US House of Representatives vote Thursday to stop financial aid to states that have not agreed to guarantee American soldiers immunity at the ICC, including Jordan.
Bloomfield’s visit was part of Washington’s campaign to secure bilateral agreements with ICC signatories to ensure its soldiers will not be called by the world court, he said. “It is aimed at putting pressure on us,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Jordan is one of Washington closest Arab allies and has been among the largest recipients of US aid. Over the past decade Amman received more than $2.3 billion in economic assistance from the United States.
The US Senate still has to support the House measure and US President George W. Bush must sign it into law. Washington has 90 such bilateral agreements signed over the past two years to circumvent the ICC.
The Bush administration objects to the ICC claiming it may interfere with global peacekeeping obligations and could be politicized. The court was set up to try atrocities, such as genocide and war crimes.
Washington said it would pull out of two UN peacekeeping missions, in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the other in Kosovo, after failing to win renew its ICC immunity in the wake of the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal.
Jordan, the current ICC head, has refused to sign any such deal with the United States, arguing it would discredit the court, the official said. A US Embassy official would only tell AFP that Bloomfield will meet Foreign Ministry officials, as well as visit an Iraqi police training center southeast of Amman, run by Jordanian, American and other Western experts.
Meanwhile, Jordanian soldiers shot dead three gunmen and arrested a fourth early yesterday as they attempted to infiltrate into Israel in the northern sector of the Jordan Valley, government spokeswoman Asma Khader announced. “The identity of the four men has not yet been determined,” she said. Khader said the size of the group had not been determined. The Jordanian armed forces have foiled scores of infiltration attempts into Israel since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising three years ago.
