A few interesting bits of news on the Hamas-Jordan issue of late…
President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said the Palestinian government should dispatch a delegation to Jordan to tackle the seizure of arms Amman stressed were smuggled into the country by Hamas.
â??The information I got from Jordan was not just staggering, but also dangerous,â? Abbas, on a visit to Russia, told Al Jazeera satellite channel. â??I am convinced of what Jordan said, unless Hamas proves otherwise.â?Â
Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh yesterday reiterated that Jordan does not seek to â??escalate the situationâ? and that Hamas should first dispatch a security team to uncover more hidden arms by the group in the country before any political talks between the two sides. [source]
Abbas butting heads with Hamas again. At this point, to be honest, I don’t really care anymore who believes who and who believes what. Everyone should retreat to their own camps of denial as usual. When it comes to Jordan the “burden of proof” involves body bags and that’s too high a price to pay for convincing the masses, at least in my opinion. So let them eat cake. Issues of national security aside, there are a few more important things when it comes to Palestine these days…
King Abdullah on Monday ordered the dispatch of urgent relief aid to the West Bank and Gaza to help the Palestinians overcome their economic crisis.
A convoy of 25 trucks laden with 400 tonnes of food and humanitarian assistance will leave for the Palestinian territories today, President of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) Abdul Salam Abbadi was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying.
Abbadi said 10 trucks will go to the West Bank and 15 to Gaza. It will be the fourth convoy of humanitarian assistance to be sent to the Palestinians in the past two months. Over the past few years, Jordan sent more than 200 aid convoys to the Palestinians, in addition to more than 30 fully equipped ambulances, according to the JHCO.
The Palestinian Authority is facing a mounting financial crisis after the European Union and United States froze direct aid payments to the government in March after Hamas took power. [source]
As usual, the situation is best described by Jordanian artist Emad Hajajj in the following caricature.
