AMMAN, 30 May 2008 — The hard-line president of Jordan’s Bar Association says authorities canceled an event that was to host the US ambassador after pressure from the lawyers’ union.
Saleh Armouti says he and dozens of other lawyers staged a protest at Palace of Justice, which houses several Jordanian courts and where US Ambassador David Hale was to attend a ceremony. At the rally, the lawyers shouted: “No to the visit of Iraq’s occupier and the enemy of Arabs.”
The union groups about 10,000 lawyers, many of them linked with hard-line Muslim and leftist groups that perceive Washington’s Mideast policy as biased toward Israel and bent on controlling Arab oil wealth. Jordanian government officials were not immediately available for comment. The US Embassy declined comment.
Meanwhile, five alleged Hamas militants have retracted confessions that they received training and weapons from the Palestinian group. The Palestinians have said at their trial in military court Wednesday that interrogators forced them to sign the confessions. They pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial two months ago.
The military prosecutor cannot immediately be reached for comment on the allegations. Military prosecutors have accused the men of training in Hamas-run camps in an unnamed neighboring country and monitoring Jordanian military installations and the Israeli Embassy in Amman to plot terror attacks. They could face 15 years in jail.
In another development, Iraqi Vice President Tareq Hashemi has urged Jordan to consider lifting visa requirements on Iraqis wanting to enter the kingdom, which is struggling to stem a huge influx of refugees.
“Today I feel sad after Jordan imposed visas on Iraqis, who reach the borders and return home because of the visas,” Hashemi said in a statement after talks with King Abdallah in Amman.
“We understand that the kingdom took the decision for strictly security reasons, but it should be reconsidered and resolved to help end the suffering of Iraqis.” Hashemi, who is on a regional tour, said he was seeking stronger ties with neighboring Jordan, where between 500,000 and 750,000 Iraqi refugees live — an estimated 360,000 of them illegally.
Earlier this month, Jordan imposed a visa requirement on Iraqis as part of plans to stem a huge influx of refugees, which the authorities estimate has cost the country more than two billion dollars. Jordan began tightening controls on its borders with its eastern neighbor after Iraqi suicide bombers killed 60 people in attacks on Amman hotels in 2005.
