Jordanian Opposition Wants To Scrap Treaty With Israel

Bloomberg reports:

Jordan's Opposition Submits Bill to Scrap Treaty With Israel

Ten opposition members of Jordan's Parliament, including six Islamists, introduced a bill calling for the dissolution of the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

The treaty "is unfair and hurts Jordanian, Palestinian and Arab interests,'' lawmaker Hamza Mansur said in an interview today in the capital, Amman. Mansur, among the Islamist legislators who presented the proposal yesterday in the lower house, heads the Islamic Action Front, a six-member bloc from the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed the treaty on Oct. 26, 1994. Jordan became the second Arab country to have a treaty with the Jewish state. Egypt and Israel signed a peace accord in 1979.

Israel "proves every day that it is a source of evil in the region and it threatens the security of the Middle East and it commits crimes against the Palestinian people and, contrary to this, the United States continues to support it unconditionally and becomes a partner in the crimes of the Zionist entity,'' Mansur said.

According to the AFP version,

The draft gave several reasons for scrapping the treaty, including that Israel "does not honor the agreement and is still a threat to Jordan." It said the Jewish state "has committed premeditated crimes in Jordan, and genocide in Palestine." In 1997, Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service carried out a botched attempt to poison Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal in Amman. Then-King Hussein secured the antidote from Israel with a threat to sever the peace treaty.

It's not clear if the draft actually gave the attempted assassination of Meshaal as one of reasons to abrogate the treaty--or whether the AFP was just trying to be helpful.

What is at stake? According to Wikipedia, the conflict between Jordan and Israel had cost $18.3 billion. Based on the text of the agreement, the treaty covers water rights, economic relations, and Jordan's role in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem--among a number of items of mutual benefit.

The opposition party either does not care about these perks, or figures that Israel would not--or could not--do anything to change the status quo.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Jordan.