AMMAN, 7 August 2004 — Jordan on Thursday defended its plan to acquire US-made missiles for its warplanes and said Israel has not officially objected to the Arab country’s ambition to upgrade its military forces. The comments by Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher follow reports this week that Israel has asked the US Congress to delay approving the air-to-air missiles deal, which is already in its advanced stages.
After meeting Israeli opposition leader Yossi Beilin in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Muasher said Jordan has received US assurances that it will go ahead with the deal. “There’s agreement with the US government to forge this deal,” Muasher said in remarks carried by the official Petra news agency, adding that Jordan has not been “formally informed of any Israeli attempt to foil the weapons deal.”
“Jordan feels it’s the master of its destiny and can decide how best to defend itself,” he added. Four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting and Israel’s construction of a West Bank wall have taken a toll on Israeli-Jordanian relations. Jordan fears the wall could set off an exodus of Palestinians to this neighboring desert kingdom.
Israel fears its military advantage over Arab states could be threatened if the AMRAAM missiles, which accurately find a target before being fired, are obtained by other regional countries.
In Washington this week, the State Department defended the prospective missiles deal with Jordan, a nation described as a stabilizing force in a region ravaged by the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Department spokesman Adam Ereli praised Jordan, but said Washington would be careful to maintain Israel’s military edge over the combined forces of Arab nations. Ereli called the deal a potential one, but noted that the Bush administration had not formally notified Congress of a plan to go ahead with it.
Israel has asked Congress to delay approving the deal. But an Israeli security official has said Israel would settle for a compromise that would make it technologically impossible to aim the missiles at Israel or a pledge that the weapons would not be sold to Egypt.
Jewish-American lobbyists and Israeli officials have also been pressing their case with the Bush administration, an Israeli government official said on condition of anonymity.
Like with Jordan, Israel and Egypt have a peace agreement, but officials said Israel is concerned about Egypt’s “arms race.” It was the first Israel has tried to prevent Jordan from buying US-manufactured arms since the two Mideast neighbors signed their 1994 peace treaty.
Muasher said his talks with Beilin, leader of the leftist Yahad Party, focused on the kingdom’s objection to the West Bank wall and ways to advance Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking under the road map, an internationally backed peace plan that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state by next year.
